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'University water polo team can be India's best'
'University water polo team can be India's best'
By: Clinton Vaz
Date:
2008-10-25
Place: Mumbai
Water war: Mumbai and Calcutta Universities battle it out in the water polo final of the All India Inter-University Aquatic Championships held at the Andheri Sports Complex yesterday. Calcutta won 7-3. pic/sayed sameer abedi
The Mumbai University water polo team was formed only 20 days before the start of the the All India Inter-University Aquatic Championship.
And though they did well to reach the final, yesterday they could not win it, going down 3-7 to Calcutta University. "To be very frank, we came unprepared. We only practised for 10 days before coming here," coach Rajesh Manghani told MiD DAY after the Mumbai boys finished runners-up at the Andheri Sports Complex yesterday.
The Mumbai team was selected rather hurriedly after an inter-collegiate event. The coach, who is also the selector of the team, said he had few choices. "There isn't a lot of interest for a sport like water polo, though I must say that there is talent out there. However, it must be guided correctly. This Mumbai side sure has the potential to do well if they play together for long," Manghani said.
Given the circumstances, a second place finish didn't seem too bad at all. The coach, in fact, was expecting gold. "After defeating defending champions Kerala in the semi-finals, I was hoping for a gold but we lost to a better team. I'm not at all disappointed with the effort from the boys," said Manghani.
Meanwhile, Bangalore's Kshipra SM shattered Anita Sood's 23-year-old record to bag the gold in the women's 400m freestyle clocking 4:47.44 seconds to eclipse Sood's 4:49.10 set way back in 1985.
