Swimmers from Karnataka will have a strong presence at the World University Games to be held at Gwangju, South Korea next month, with three of them being part of the Indian squad.
Poorva Kiran Shetye, Meenakshi VKR and Rakshith Shetty, all students of Jain Group of Institutions (JGI), will be part of the Indian Universities team in the July 3-14 meet.
Shooter G S Sharan, also Jain student, and sprinter Priyanka Kalgi from Alva’s College Moodbidri make up the rest of the contingent from Karnataka.
The swimmers will have camp in Chandigarh before leaving to South Korea on July 2.
“It will be a tough competition, we will have to compete against Olympic medal winners, hence we need to work that much harder,” Poorva, speaking on the sidelines of a function organised by JGI to felcitate their students who had excelled in sport in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
The sportspersons received cash prizes, with the aquatics team being the biggest beneficiary, taking home Rs 2.77 lakh for their medal-winning displays at the All India inter-university meet. Poorva received Rs 1.60 lakh while Meenakshi and Rakshith were presented Rs 80,000 and Rs 37,000 respectively.
State Cricketers Shreyas Gopal, Jagadeesh Suchith and R Samarath, all Jain students, were among those honoured.
JGI director Chenraj Jain, speaking at the function, promised that there would be an investment of Rs 200 crore on sporting infrastructure over the next 15 years and a model for retired sportspersons to impart their experiences with the present crop will be put in place.
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