Puttur: Ace swimmer from town and member of Indian Swimming Team, Vaishnav Hegde will be participating in the 10th Asian Swimming championship to be held at Tokyo, Japan on November 18. In this meet he will be swimming along with Dimitry Balandin from Khazakistan who had won the gold medal in 200 metres breast stroke at Rio Olympics.
Vaishnav got selected for this Asian meet by giving a qualifying time of 29.14 seconds in 50 metres breast stroke at the 70th Senior National Aquatic Championship held at Rajkot in September. At the Senior Nationals, he had won a silver medal in 50 metres breast stroke and 2 silvers in 4×50 medley relay and 4×50 mixed relay.
On October 19 at the South Asian swimming Championship at Colombo, he grabbed his first International medal by winning the gold medal in 50 metres breast stroke and a bronze in 100 metres breast stroke.
On November 27, 2015 he not only created a new meet record at the All India Inter University Aquatic Championship at Chandigarh, but also won the gold in 50 metres breast stroke and silver in 100 metres breast stroke.
Eighteen-year-old Vaishnav is being trained in Puttur Aquatic Club under Partha Varanashi, Vasanth Kumar and Niroop G R. He is a first year BCom student from St.Philomina’s College, Puttur.
