Nagpur, April 10
Sea Swimming Coaching Centre, Juhu, Mumbai, National Institute of Swimming(NIS), Nagpur District Amateur Aquatic Association, JD Sports Foundation, in joint cooperation with Indian Divers and Explorers Association(IDEA) organised India's largest Adventure Sea Swimming Expedition in Mumbai on the occasion of 75th Year of India's Independence, keeping the view of promoting open water swimming.
The 31-km Gateway of India to Elephanta Caves and back expedition was flagged off by Maharashtra sports minister Sunil Kedar at 7:30 am from Gateway of India. Cmdr. Jilet Koshy, Naval Officer-In- Charge, Maharashtra, Captain (I.N.) Satpal Singh, Director, NCC Directorate Maharashtra, Captain Bhabhatosh Chand, Dy. Conservator, Mumbai Port Trust, Captain Jayprakash Tiwari, Patil, Administrative Officer, Maharashtra Maritime Board, Subash Dalvi,OSD, Solid Waste Management, BMC, Shri. Jay Kowli, Vice President, Maharashtra Olympic Committee, . Abhay Chauhan, District Sports Officer Mumbai, Kishor Shetty, Treasurer, Swimming Association of Maharashtra, Subodh Kale, Pilot of the expedition were present. Dr. Jaiprakash Duble, Head coach of this centre, initially, shortlisted 50 swimmers from all over Maharashtra for the expedition. After the medical assessment of the swimmers and verification of the documents of the swimmers, names of 40 swimmers was finalized for the expedition. The expedition had swimmers from a wide range of age of 9 years to 60 years and had male and female swimmers. The expedition also had 2 para swimmers and among the 40 final swimmers, 10 swimmers were from Nagpur.
Alongwith Nagpur, swimmers from Wardha, Amravati, Buldhana, Aurangabad, Jalgaon, Dhule, Nashik, Pune and Raigad participated in this expedition. The expedition was carried out under the leadership of Nagpur's international open water Swimmer Jayant Jaiprakash Duble . Alongwith Jayant, Harshal Ambagade, Arjun Bhonsale, Suyog Nikule, Shantanu Thakre, Yashwant Umale, Dhawal Chacharkar, Shravani Garje, Viveka Umale and Shreyash Rangari were the participant swimmers from Nagpur.
The leading swimmer of the expedition, Jayant Duble, jumped into the Arabian Sea at 7:30 am and gave a start to the expedition.
Following this, all the swimmers swam in relay towards Elephanta Caves (Gharapuri) and then swam back towards Gateway of India and reached there at 07:09 pm. Thus the 31km distance of the expedition was swam successfully by 40 swimmers of Maharashtra in 11 hours 39 minutes. This expedition is India's largest Adventure Sea Swimming Expedition as told by the chief organiser of the expedition, Dr. Jaiprakash Duble.