N Muthu, chief general manager (human resource), NlC inaugurated the 32nd sub junior and 42nd junior Tamil Nadu State Aquatic Championships at Neyveli lignite City Swimming Club swimming pool in the presence of D Padmanaban, district sports and youth welfare officer, Cuddalore.
Fourty teams consisting of approximately 750 participants from various districts of Tamil Nadu including 350 girls in Group I and II are competing in this championship organised by the Tamil Nadu State Aquatic Association (TNSAA) and the Neyveli lignite City Swimming Club (NlCSC).
In his inaugural address, the CGM said, that the NlC swimming pool with international standard is the only one of its kind in the four nearby districts and the second to Chennai. As a result of the importance shown towards sports by NlC management, many Neyveli students have joined engineering and medical institutions in sports quota. He complimented the parents for their efforts put in bringing up their ward and adviced all the students to learn swimming.
Padmanaban, in his presidential address said, such championships are very big events and recollected the contributions of NlC in encouraging sports persons. Since the year 1985, the corporation has nurtured sports to the international level. He flagged off the 400 metres trial of individual medley in the presence of D Jayaraman, secretary of TNSAA. In boys category, Selvan C Ruban Kumar, Selvan P Chandran and Selvan S Aswathnathan of “Turtles,” Chennai in lane 4, 6 and 2 won the first, second and third place.
In the girls category, Selvi D Haripriya, Selvi PM Abishiktha and Selvi S Divya Dharani of Salem district aquatic team and ORCA in lane 2, 3 and 6 respectively participated leaving the first position to Abishiktha, second to Haripriya and third to Divya Dharani. R Mohan, GM/HR/Mines and the president of the NlCSC M Karthikeyan, DGM/Civil/CSR and the secretary of NlCSC, committee members, P Mahesh, T Sindhu Babu, P Arulazhagan organised the championship. T Vaideshwaran, vice president of TNSAA also participated.
The winners of this meet will represent the State at the forthcoming National Aquatic Meet scheduled to be held during July 2015 at Pune, Maharashtra. Hence, it is self-explanatory about the significance of the
present.