Sharath Gayakwad Opens Campaign at Paralympics Games 2012

Sharath Gayakwad Opens Campaign at Paralympics Games 2012

Sets a personal best time of 1:07.12 in his maiden event, the 100m Butterfly

30th August 2012, London: India's sole entry to the London Paralympic Games in Swimming, Sharath Gayakwad began his campaign today. Swimming the qualifying event of the 100m Butterfly, this young PACE Scholar finished 4th in his heat with a personal best time of 1:07.12, which was 0.58 seconds slower than the qualification time for the finals.

Commenting on his performance, having shaved off 5 seconds from his Olympic qualification time, the 21 year old satisfied Sharath Gayakwad said, "I am really proud of my performance today. It's disheartening to have missed the finals by such a small margin, but I could not have gone any faster."

Sharath, who is to participate in four events at the Paralympic Games - 100m Butterfly, 100m Breaststroke, 50m Freestyle and 200m IM - has just returned from a high-performance training camp at the University of Western Australia, Perth. There, he trained under the watchful eye of the highly respected Mel Tantrum, a Gold Licensed high-performance swimming coach, a program funded by the GoSports Foundation and its network.

Sharath will next swim the 100m Breaststroke, his pet event, on the 1st of September, 2012.