Kolkata: India's biggest hope in swimming, Virdhawal Khade feels the country will deliver a good Commonwealth Games despite the controversy-marred build-up to the event.
"I am sure India will come out with flying colours with a good show at the CWG. Our main aim is to give our best at the pool and what happens around us does not really bother sportpersons," Khade said from New Delhi where the swimming contingent is training at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Complex, the main pool for competition.
The Kolhapur-born swimmer, who at 15 became the youngest Indian swimmer to qualify for the Beijing Olympics 2008, said though India will find the competition tough from Australia and South Africa, it will have the best chance to open its account in swimming.
"I cannot promise a medal. But this time around, we have the best chance especially in the men's section. Last time, we could not make the finals, but we hope to make the cut," the 18-year-old said.
"We have been training for CWG for more than a year. We had a fruitful Europe tour in May-July and competed against the same field in France and Spain. We have a bright prospect this time around," he says.
The Big Two of Indian swimming, Khade and Delhi's Sandeep Sajwal, will have stiff competition in breaststroke and freestyle events respectively from world champion swimmers.
Khade will be up against Roland Schoeman of South Africa, the current 50m freestyle world record holder, while Sejwal will face competition from 50m breaststroke world record holder Christian Sprenger of Australia and reigning 100m breaststroke world record holder, South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh.
In the prelude to CWG, Khade had won three gold and three silver medals at the Youth Commonwealth Games held in Pune two years ago.
He also came up with medal-winning performances with a bronze at the Asian Indoor Games (50m freestyle) and a silver in the Asian Swimming Championships (100m freestyle).
Early this year, Khade and Sejwal went into the record books at the South Asian Games in Dhaka.
Khade won two golds in 50 m freestyle and 50m butterfly while Sejwal topped in 100 m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke with SAG record timings.
Recently, however, they were not upto mark in the Nationals held in Jaipur with Khade blaming it on poor standards in the Rajasthan capital.
"The pool was not in good shape, not upto the international standards that affected our timings. But considering the circumstances, we did well and there is nothing to be unhappy about," Khade, who won four gold medals but without any meet record at the Nationals, said.
He said Richa Mishra and Jyotsana Pansare, both members of India's 26-member aquatic squad for the CWG who tested positive for methylhexaneamine, might join the squad.
"The ban has been lifted. They might join the squad before the competition."
The Swimming Federation of India (SFI) is yet to take a final decision on whether the two will be dropped from the CWG squad.
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