JSW Group today announced the appointments of seasoned South African swimming coach Douglas Eager and Olympian as well as Asian Games medallist Sandeep Sejwal to lead the Odisha JSW Swimming High Performance Centre (OJSHPC), which is based at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar.
The duo has been appointed with the aim of creating structured athlete development pathways for swimming in the state and helping Indian athletes achieve success at the global level, the JSW Group stated through a press release.
The partnership between the Odisha Government and JSW has seen the conglomerate lead the technical aspects of the swimming program in Odisha and establish best practices to offer coaching programs aimed at developing Indian swimmers capable of achieving FINA-A Qualification times for World Championships and the Olympics in 8-12 years. A total of 34 swimmers have already been identified as part of the HPC since its inception.
Eager brings over two decades of coaching experience having trained top international swimmers including Olympic and Commonwealth Games medalist Lyndon Ferns. “I am extremely excited about the swimming program in Bhubaneswar where we are developing swimmers from grassroots beginners to elite swimmers. With the coaching staff and facilities at our disposal, I am convinced that we will be producing national and international champions in the not too distant future,” he said.
After retiring from competitive swimming, Sejwal, an Arjuna awardee and 13-time national champion, took to full-time coaching and has trained some of the top swimmers of the country, including Kenisha Gupta, Aanya Wala, Srish Maulik among several others.
Expressing his excitement on taking up the new role, Sejwal said, “Having represented India in the pool at the international level, I am really looking forward to this new challenge of developing the next generation of Indian swimmers.”
The OJSHPC will be part of a network of HPCs being set up under the umbrella of the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), the first privately-funded High Performance Centre in India established by JSW Group.
Speaking about the program, R Vineel Krishna, Sports Secretary, Odisha, said, “Swimming is amongst a priority sports for us and we aim to promote it both as a sport and also as an important life skill, right from grassroots to elite. We are very happy the way JSW has engaged experts to take swimming to a greater level, in Odisha.”
Besides the HPC, JSW is also focusing efforts on a statewide Grassroots Program through a network of eight training centres across Odisha. The focus at these centres is a program _ Learn to Swim _ which aimed at getting more children to take up swimming as a life skill and create a performance pathway for swimmers in the state.
A Coach Development initiative is also being put in place for continuous professional development of state coaches through certifications and workshops with international swim coaches.
ODISHA-JSW GRASSROOTS SWIMMING TRAINING CENTRES:
Bhubaneshwar, Kalinga Stadium: +91 89044 82502
Boudh, District Stadium: +91 90788 74400
Sonepur, District Stadium: +91 90900 02025
Ganjam, Circuit House: +91 78940 16114
Mayurbhanj, North Odisha University Road: +91 81434 41994
Angul, Angul Stadium: +91 83289 83711
Bolangir, RN Singhdeo Swimming Pool: +91 82802 10876
Sambalpur, Golbazaar: +91 93372 46022
Jajpur, Near Kusuma Pond: +91 82496 77821
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PHOTO: Undated image of Indian Olympic swimmer-turned coach Sandeep Sejwal (Left) and South African swimming coach Douglas Eager at the Biju Patnaik Swimming Pool Complex in Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar.