Bhubaneswar: The 62nd State Senior Swimming meet got underway at Biju Patnaik Swimming Pool, Kalinga Stadium, on Wednesday with 128 swimmers (97 men and 31 women) vying for glory.
There’s a lot at stake for the swimmers as based on performances in the two-day meet – being jointly organized by Odisha State Swimming Association and Department of Sports & Youth Services, Odisha government — the Odisha squad for next month’s National Senior Aquatic championship at Guwahati will be selected.
Bikash Haripal won a ‘double’ on Wednesday, topping the men’s (200m and 400m freestyle events.
Among other winners on Day 1 were Subhranto Patra (200m butterfly), Naveen Sharma (200m back troke) and Hitesh Moharana (200m breast troke) among men and Pratyasha Ray (200m backstroke), Mannata Mishra (200m breaststroke), Vadra Satpathy (400m freestyle), Anshika Aradhana Sahoo (200m freestyle) and Shristi Upadhya (200m Individual medley) in women’s categories.
In the Para-Swimming competition, Sumeet Kumar Pand, Dinesh Mohan Majhi among men, and Purnima Naik (women) won gold medals.
