Poncha one step away from securing Olympic berth

Font Size -

Agencies

Posted online: Saturday , July 05, 2008 at 01:13:13

New Delhi, July 5: Four-time national champion Rehan Poncha attained the Olympic 'B' qualification mark in the 200m butterfly event to become India's prospective contender for the Beijing Games in the event at the Telstra Grand Prix in Sydney on Saturday.

The 21-year-old, who has several national records to his credit, clocked 2:01.40 to finish fifth, better than the Olympic qualifying benchmark of 2:1.79 but will have to wait until July 15 to know whether he would really be on the flight to Beijing.

Poncha would make the cut only if none of his other compatriots better his timing in the event at the second FINA World Youth Championships to be held in Monterrey, Mexico from July 8.

If he qualifies, then Poncha would be the fourth Indian swimmer to book a Beijing berth. The other three being teen sensation Virdawal Khade (200 meters free style), Ankur Poseria (100m butterfly) and Sandeep Sejwal (100m and 200m Breaststrokes).

Poncha will also compete in the 200m backstroke event where he finished third in the preliminaries after clocking 2:08.15. The finals of this event are scheduled for Sunday.

Post Comments

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*
Message*	Characters remaining

TERMS OF USE: The views represented here are not neccesarily endorsed by www.expressindia.com and its allied websites. All messages will be moderated and no message that has inflammatory, abusive, derogatory language or any language deemed unfit for publication by the editor will be displayed. Though it will be endeavoured that as many messages as possible be displayed, there will be time lag between the submission and publication of the messages. The website reserves the right to publish or reject any message.

I agree to the terms of use.