Shillong, July 11: The Meghalaya Swimming Association(MSA) has selected 17 junior students for national swimming championship.

Out of which 10 are boys and 7 are girls.

The Junior Aquatic Championship organised by the Swimming Federation of India is being held at Orissa.

The president of the association, Joe Mawrie along with general secretary Ian Lyngdoh, who is also the vice-president of the Meghalaya State Olympic Association has extended best wishes to all the participants.

He thanked the parent of the students who have supported their children to pursue swimming.

Talking to the reporters, Mawrie said, “This is the first time, such a large contingent is participating from the State. There are 10 males and 7 females who are participating in the group 1 and group 2 categories.”

The competition is for students of the age group 14-17 years. The students will be competing in the 50m all strokes, 100m and relay.

The 17 students were selected from over 100 participants who came for trials. Trials were based on the timing of their swimming. The 17 students belonged from Shella and Shillong along with 2 others from Mawkyrwat.

“Swimming has become a very popular sport in Meghalaya. Yes, swimming is coming up but we need a proper infrastructure, by infrastructure I mean a 50m swimming size pool, so the juniors can get use to this,” stated Ian Lyngdoh.

Even for trainings and practice the students had to be sent to Sarusajai Stadium, a swimming complex in Guwahati informed the general secretary.

He further stated that the State is handicap as 50m swimming size pool is not available.

Ian Lyngdoh urged the government to fastened the work to have an olympic size pool for the National games to be held in 2024(tentatively) so that the prospects of producing champions will be even better.

He also appealed to the parents and stakeholders of aspiring swimmers to support them as swimming is a sports which is injury free, a survival strategy and a sport that teaches an individual to develop disciplinary manners and enhance a healthy environment and ecosystem.