Indian swimmers to train in Germany for Olympics

The three member Indian swimming team will start its London Olympics preparation at Olympic Training Centre in Frankfurt, Germany from June 1 to July 24. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has approved the training of two top swimmers Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal. The team will be led by coach Nihar Ameen.

The full cost of the training will be borne by the government. Out of four Indian swimmers qualified for London Olympic, Khade and Sejwal are the best hopes for the medal.

Virdhawal Khade qualified for the100m freestyle event for 2012 London Olympics at the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai. The Asian Games bronze medallist clocked 50.34 seconds to make the invitation cut for the quadrennial Games.

Sandeep Sejwal qualified for the mega event after clocking 1:02.62 in the 100m Breaststroke event at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai in June 2011.

Apart from these two, Saurabh Sangvekar has qualified in 1500m freestyle and Aaron D'Souza has qualified in 200m freestyle event. Both the swimmers had achieved the 'B' qualifying mark. But this doesn't guarantee their participation in Olympics.

The world governing body FINA is expected to restrict the number of participants to 900 and all those who have made the 'B' qualifying would have to wait for the wild card entries.