Bengaluru swimmers dominate 11th Goa Swimathon 2023

Bengaluru based swimmers completely dominated the just concluded, 11th Goa Swimathon organised by Enduro Sports and powered by miniOrange held at the Betalbatim beach in South Goa.

Bengaluru bagged 50 podium positions ( gold, silver and bronze) followed by Mumbai who bagged 22 podiums and hosts Goa finished third with 15 podium positions. A total of 700 swimmers took part in the event from across India.

Sagar Badve (32), hearing and visually impaired swimmer from Aurangabad in Maharashtra won the longest, 11 km race clocking 3:38:03 hours. Sagar, who has represented India in the Special Olympics, has also successfully swum the Strait of Gibralter in 2010. He was felicitated by the President of India on World Disabled Persons’ Day on December 3, 2022.

Over 50 physically challenged and disabled swimmers took part in the event this year, in which Aahil Sheikh, 13-year-old hearing impaired school boy from Bicholim, Goa covered himself with glory winning both the 250 metres and one km races in the sub-junior category.

The event also saw, Sheron Figarado, professor at IIT-Goa and a physically challenged swimmer come third in the 250 metres race in the seniors category.

Other highlights include the participation of Bengaluru podium winners, Gopal Rao (77) and Lalitha Vijayaraghavan (72) the oldest swimmers at the event, Mumbai wife-husband team of Valerie and Zarir Baliwalla, who both won their respective races, Former India international Nisha Millet of Bengaluru winning her 5.5 km race in 01:41:55 hrs and Nicole Pavri of Goa, who won her one km race, coming back after a serious, cervical spine fracture last year.