The Swimming team of Fahaheel Al-Wataniya Indian Private School (FAIPS-DPS), Ahmadi who are the Kuwait cluster swimming champions for the year 2012-13 participated in the CBSE National Sports competitions recently held in Pune - India. Indira National School at Wakad (Pune) hosted the CBSE National Swimming Meet at Shiv Chhatrapati Krida Sankul, Balewadi Stadium, Pune from 6th November 2012 to 9th November 2012. In this National Level CBSE event organized for the first time in Pune, around 220 schools from all over India and Middle East with 600 participants in four different age groups of under 12, under 14, under 16 and under 19 competed in true sportsman spirit.

The DPS Team consisted of the following members:

Team Coach: Mr. Ragab AbouElmaKarem

Girls Team:

1. Ruth Rachel Zachariah (Class: V)

2. Nivedita Prabhakaran (Class: VII)

3. Ruth Ann Philips (Class: VII)

4. Kruthika Mallur (Class: VII)

5. Shrinjal Singh (Class: VIII)

6. Khadija Huzefa Petladi (Class: VIII)

7. Abeer Syed (Class: VIII)

8. Shailaja Pathak (Class: IX)

9. Sanghamitra Nath (Class: IX)

10. Suhani Lakothia (Class: X)

11. Kshamata Mallur (Class: X)

12. Shreya Chandrasekhar (Class : X)

13. Divyashree Avnoor (Class: X)

Boys Team:

1. Rohit Mittal (Class: VII)

2. Hari Anata Subhesh (Class: VIII)

3. Mantavya Sharma (Class: X)

4. Kanishka Thakur (Class: XI)

A total of about 110 events were effectively organized over four days where the first day started with a spectacular march past of the different participating schools and other cultural events. Some of the prominent figures in the organizing committee Mrs. Vijaya Joshi , Chief Executive Principal and Mrs. Geeta Pillai, Principal, Mrs. Aarti Garampalli, Brigadier D. V. Kumar (Rtd.) arranged an informative presentation and question and answer session to the coaches of various teams before the events on 5th November at the Indira School. The sparkling opening ceremony was attended by senior CBSE officials besides Padmashree Award winners, reputed sports personalities and various swimming champions. Several new national records were created in this meet. FAIPS swimming Team participated in 34 events for the first time in this mega national sports meet. Participating in this event has exposed the FAIPS swimming team to a higher level of excellence and challenge. The organizing Committee worked day and night to make the events successful in a safe manner.

Though the budding swimmers from Kuwait cluster could not win medals in this national competition, we have proved ourselves to be competitive with promising futures in swimming and representing Kuwait at the national level. At the end of the event, all the participant children and coaches were presented with participation certificates. It is noteworthy to mention that the sports village in Balewadi, Pune which was selected as the venue for this mega event has world class infrastructure and Olympic level swimming pools besides various other stadiums for multiple sporting events and has been the venue for many commonwealth sport events in 2008 and other international level competitions in the past years.

Some of the major advantages of Sports in our school are that they help us make exercise a part of the routine lifestyle and provided us an opportunity to become a healthier person. Participation in sports builds self-esteem, confidence and positive view of us. Our participation in CBSE sports practically taught us teamwork and how our team actions affect other people.

Through this article, I, on behalf of the school swimming team, express our gratitude and sincere thanks to Mrs. Anju Dheman, Principal and all the Teachers of FAIPS-DPS School, Kuwait for supporting us in this direction. Our appreciations and thanks to Indira National School organizers, particularly Mrs. Geeta Pillai, Principal for organizing such a mega event at a world class venue successfully. Last but not least, we are thankful to our coach Mr. Ragab AbouElmaKarem and our parents for their constant motivation and preparing us for this event. My special appreciation and thanks to my co-participants Ruth Rachel Zachariah (Cl.V), Ruth Ann Philps (Cl.VII) and our parents for their help in preparing this article.

I am also a participant of the CBSE National swimming games at Pune (India) during 6th -9th Nov 2012.

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