Visakhapatnam:
Braving powerful currents and painful jellyfish stings a team of nine swimmers successfully completed their 25-kilometre swim from Bheemunipatnam to R K Beach in the city on Saturday as part of the trialthon event organised to mark 150 years of service by the police.
The swim started off from Bheemunipatnam at 6.45 am and the swimmers reached Vizag’s shores over nine grueling hours later, to be greeted by a large number of people and personnel from the police department.
Waving the Indian flag, additional DGP (sports) Rajiv Trivedi led his team members ashore, including Goa CISF deputy commandant S Jayakumar, Maharashtra police DSP Balasaheb Ramchandra Ghadge, BSF sub-inspector Mandar Anand Divase, Vizag city constable N Tulasi Chaitanya, Nizamabad constable N Srinivas, Vizag district constable Ch Srinivas, Odisha constable Rushab Suna and techie Sunil Menon of Microsoft.
Narrating the experience, Trivedi said, “I fell in love with the city when I visited it in 1995 and always wanted to swim from somewhere to Vizag. When I heard that Bheemli is celebrating its 150 years as a municipality, I wanted to take up the swim. I wanted to connect the historical town of Bheemli with the modern city of Vizag through my swim.” However, cautioning the youth against the dangers of swimming in the sea, he said, “The sea is lovely and attractive. But people can get trapped, so people should be well equipped. Without the knowledge of swimming, currents and depths, one must not enter the sea.” He thanked the efforts of support team of navigators Kiran Kumar and V Srinivas.
The team was accompanied by four kayaks with two rowers each, two fishing boats with navigation equipment, replenishments and a coastguard vessel. Travelling in the fishing boat alongside swimmers, Udaya Trivedi, wife of ADGP (Sports), said the first three to four hours were the hardest for the team of swimmers.
Comparing the west and the east coast of the country, Goa CISF deputy commandant S Jayakumar said, “The east coast is far more challenging than the west. In Goa, we don’t have such rough waves. Here the currents are too strong. We had to put in a lot of effort.”
Vizag district police constable Ch Srinivas, who participated in national games three times, described it as a tough swim. Having already completed a swim from Rushikonda to Vizag, he said it was the longest time he had spent battling the sea.
With the swimming leg of the triathlon over, the team will now cycle 695 km from Vizag on Sunday and is expect to reach Hyderabad on December 31. On January 1, they will participate in a 42-km marathon in the state capital.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / December 23rd, 2012