SFI taking steps to give diving a facelift

Diving may be a spectacular Olympic sport with a huge fan following, but it is yet to make a mark in India.

After several decades of neglect, the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) is making efforts to build an identity for diving — which has two Arjuna awardees, Bajrangi Prasad (1961) and Manjari Bhargava (1974).

The SFI has urged the Army Sports Institute (ASI), Pune, to host camps so that non-Services divers may avail the facilities on its campus. The federation is also keen to rope in a foreign coach and facilitate International Swimming Federation (FINA) scholarships for Indian divers.

Some progress

Mayur Vyas, a FINA technical committee member and an international judge who has officiated in the Olympics, outlines how the sport has changed in the last 40-50 years.

“Earlier, only wooden boards were used. The techniques were different. Now the standard has gone up. India has also shown improvement. Our divers are winning medals at Asian junior championships,” Vyas told The Hindu on the sidelines of the National aquatics championships here.

“Siddharth Pardesi has competed in the World championships. He won a FINA scholarship (2019 and trained in Kazan, Russia, for a year). Now, he will train in Canada for a year and compete in a few events. That will be good exposure. London Singh is another promising diver. We also intend to get sponsorship for a woman diver,” he said.

Expensive affair

Infrastructure is a major roadblock in the sport’s development. “Only the ASI has proper infrastructure. We have requested them to allow camps to be conducted on their premises so that more divers get the opportunity to use the facilities.

“Building infrastructure is an expensive affair. You need a dry chamber on 18,000-19,000 square feet area with a dry pit. We require other equipment such as trampoline, twisting and somersault belts,” he said.

Appointing a foreign coach is also on the priority list. “I have contacted some Australian and American coaches,” Vyas added.