West Bengal swimmers ruled the pool with full dominance in the 4th National Finswimming Championship 2024 to win the team championship crown with a total of 151 medals including 67 gold, 43 silver, and 41 bronze medals. Runners-up, Karnataka, were far behind with a total of 50 medals. Their swimmers won 17 gold, 18 silver, and 15 bronze medals.
Uttarakhand secured the third place with 21 medals. They won 8 gold, 6 silver, and 7 bronze medals. Haryana also won 21 medals ( 6 gold, 10 silver, and 5 bronze ) but because of winning 2 gold less than Uttarakhand, was placed fourth. Maharashtra won 13 medals (4 gold, 4 silver, and 5 bronze) to secure the fifth place. Manipur got 6th place with 8 medals (4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze). Hosts Delhi won 11 medals (3 gold, 5 silver, and 3 bronze) and got seventh place in the medal tally. The chief guest of the closing ceremony, Dronacharya awardee hockey coach AK Bansal, gave away the trophies and medals to the winners. Bansal was thrilled to see the Finswimmers of all ages participating in huge numbers, a press release by National Finswimming Championship stated. The three-day championship, organized by the Underwater Sports Federation of India (USFI) in association with the Physical Education Foundation of India, recognized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (Government of India), ended here at the Syama Prasad Mookeerjee Swimming Pool Complex. The championship was represented by 1500 participants from 26 States and Union Territories. Finswimmers from 19 States teams have won one or more medals. Tapan Panigrahi, Secretary of the Underwater Sports Federation of India (USFI), congratulated all the participants and team officials for showing great spirit during the championship and hoped that with their hard work and efforts. "Finswimming will spread its wings at a fast pace in the country. Panigrahi, a Dronacharya awardee in swimming, has set a target of having one lakh Finswimmers in the country very soon," the release added. (ANI)
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