Thursday, August 21, 2014

The Swimmer’s GC




The Swimming GC this year was held on 14 Aug 2014. Because of the changes in academic time table the GC was postponed by 1 hour. Being the first GC of the year, it was important that the GC went well. The GC was scheduled at 6:30 PM and like many other participants I also had class till 6:30. Thanks to the council which took care of the initial arrangements of the opening ceremony and managed the crowd. I rushed to the pool after my class. My superiors had advised me to miss the class saying that the GC was important and I said my DR does not allow me to miss classes(Those who didn’t get this statement, sorry rahega :P). At the pool, a large no of students had gathered. My conveners were taking entries and people were waiting for me( It was like they were waiting for someone to check things and give a green signal). I was suffering from cough, cold and fever, so I came loaded with paracetamol and half a dozen other tablets. I was more like a ‘sick-aquatics-secy’. Our awesome coach Reddy Sir gave a short yet encouraging speech to the participants. My sore throat did not allow me to shout at people even when I was frustrated. I felt so helpless when I had to politely tell them to stay away from my desk. One of the hostel Cos specifically pissed me off by changing the all the entries just before every event. Somehow, amidst all this commotion the events finally started.

First one was 50M backstroke. Here we expected to see a tough contest between Suyash and Kedar and we saw one. Both were neck to neck but at the end Kedar took a big stroke and came first. At this moment something shocking happened, a foreign exchange student, Philip was also swimming neck to neck and he came 2nd, all of us were so focused on the Suyash that no one noticed him. Suyash was baffled and he had to content with bronze. Next came my event, 100M Freestyle. Let me remind you that I was sick, I was feeling fine after taking the medicines. First 50 was peaceful, then suddenly I felt as If my calves were frozen, it was so difficult to move them and then my arms, last 10 metres were more like 1000 metres. But somehow I managed to complete. And Yes I had won(I knew the whole time I was winning ;-) , this thought kept me going). In 50M Breaststroke Ashwin did not disappoint anyone with his rather convincing gold finish. He does breast stroke like a monster. Next was my favourite, 50 m butterfly, this had 3 inter IIT players, Tarun, Abhishek and Shubham. The event started and I stood there hoping some miracle happens. And then suddenly I saw Tarun leading and he eventually came first. I was delighted. I shouted at the top of my voice(only I could hear it) “Teena first aa gye!!”. My overwhelming joy was because of 2 reasons, first the more obvious-teena is from my hostel and second, the real reason- he had never beaten lalla or shende before in 50 M Butterfly. I ran towards the pool half dancing to congratulate him. After this feast we had 50M Freestyle. Here, Aniket of H9 rushed away like a bullet to take the gold. It seemed as if he had sworn not to breathe till he ends the race. We had all the results and before the relay we decided to do some number crunching. At the points table our hostle was leading at 17 points and far far behind us was H7 with 8 points. Now even if we came forth in the relay we would win the GC. Without much delay we started the relay. We expected to see a close contest between H7 and H8 for the first place. H7 ultimately won the relay with a lead of 5 seconds. But results as I mentioned before were already out. H8 had won the GC after a gap of 10 long years. Everyone seemed happy. The medal ceremony was held at the end of the GC, where Reddy Sir gave away medals to the winners. He was delighted with the performance of the students. You could guess so by the look on his face when he was giving away the medals. Suyash(H8) was given the Player of The GC Award. I was also pretty satisfied with the event. That night I got a ping from the Gsec saying it was the best GC he had seen in the last 3 years. This statement made my day. Our Gsec uses the tools of Psychology very well. Now that I have taken up a lot of your time, let me end this story with a line that is quoted very often-‘All’s well when it ends well’.
The Event wise list of medal winners is as follows:
  • 50M Backstroke
  1. Kedar Joshi(H6)
  2. Philip Stroich(H13)
  3. Suyash Abnave(H8)
  • 50M Breaststroke
  1. Ashwin Kanhere(H3)
  2. Suyash Abnave(H8)
  3. Rahul Moghe(H7)
  • 50M Butterfly
  1. Tarun Meena(H8)
  2. Abhishek Shende(H7)
  3. Shubham Lalwani(H3)
  • 50M Freestyle
  1. Aniket Gaikwad
  2. Akhil Kumar
  3. Suyash Abnave
  • 100M Freestyle
  1. Karan Gupta(H8)
  2. Philip Stroich(H13)
  3. Shashank Srivastava(H7)
  • 4x50M Freestyle Relay
  1. Hostel 7
  2. Hostel 8
  3. Hostel 9
The Overall standing of the teams after the GC is:
  1. Hostel 8-12 points
  2. Hostel 7-9 points
  3. Hostel 3 & Hostel 9-5 points each

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