Dubai's Tanish makes a splash in India

Tanish George Mathew has made the UAE and Dubai proud by clinching top honours in the 44th Glenmark Junior National Aquatic Championships in India.

The 14-year-old, a pupil of Indian High School (IHS), Dubai, sizzled in the pool and won six gold and two silver medals, and rewrote two individual and one relay National records in the competition at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Swimming Pool, in Balewadi, Pune, Maharashtra.

The lad, representing Karnataka, the Indian state that has produced many accomplished swimmers over the years, won gold in the 50 metres butterfly, 100 metres butterfly, 200 metres freestyle, 4x100 metres freestyle relay, 4x200 metres freestyle relay and 4x100 medley relay.

Tanish also won the silver in the 200 metres butterfly and the 100 metres freestyle.

He set new National records in 50 metres butterfly, 100 metres butterfly and the 4x100 metres medley relay (with Prasidha Krishna, Litheesh Gowda and Abhay Kumar) as well as a new meet record in the 200 metres butterfly.

Tanish clocked 26.68 seconds in 50 metres butterfly to eclipse Himanshu Dhakar's record of 26.86 seconds set in 2011. He also bested Goa's Xavier D'Souza's mark of 59.23 seconds set two years ago, with a timing of 58.37 seconds.

Tanish set a new meet record in the 200 metres butterfly with a time of 2:12.29 seconds.

His exploits in Pune earned him a spot in the India squad for the 9th Asian Age Group Swimming Championship 2017 which will be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from September 9 to 16.

It is a proud moment not just for him and his family but also the school as he is the first student to represent India.

"It was tough but it was fun. It is the first time that I have won so many medals and I'm very happy. I feel proud to be selected for India," Tanish told the Khaleej Times on Wednesday.

"My dream is to get a medal at the Olympics," added the Grade VIII student, who is coached by Dronacharya award winner S Pradeep Kumar at the Induss Sports Academy in Dubai.

"We are extremely proud of him. His coach has played a very important role and got him to this level. The sacrifice from the child, the support of the family as well as the school, has helped him in his path," said Viji Susan Mathew, his mother.

"We, as parents, were keen on our children being fit and taking up sport because kids usually end up spending more time with gadgets. We told him there is no pain, no gain and there are no short cuts in life. He has been really working hard as it is not easy in an individual sport like swimming," his father George Mathew said.

Source: Khaleej Times