Two students, representing Bangalore University (BU) will participate in the 27th Summer Universiade, the biennial competition organised by the International University Sports Federation, to be held between July 6 to 17 at Kazan, Russia.
Chethan B, a BCom student from Government First Grade College, K R Puram and Rohit R Havaldar, a MBA student from Presidency College, have been selected for high jump and swimming respectively. This is their first international event. Chethan has been practising high jump for the last five years at Kanteerava Stadium. His mother, Shamala Balasubramaniam, appealed to the government to provide incentives to students, who win medals at international events.
Chethan participated in many athletic competitions, including the state-level and national-level championships. He finished first in the All India Inter University Athletic Championship (AIIUAC) held at Kolkata in January.
Rohith is a gold medallist swimmer who won the Best Swimmer Award at the AIIUAC. He participated in the 19th Commonwealth Games (2010) in New Delhi, where he was ranked sixth. “This will be my first attempt at an international event,” he said. Chethan will head to Athletics Training Camp at Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad and Rohith will train at Kalyani University, Calcutta, before heading to New Delhi on July 3 and then to Kazan on July 6.
The university will cover flight charges, accommodation, entry fees, establishment charges and coaching fees for the two athletes. The estimated expenditure met by the university for Chethan are Rs 1,60,090 and Rs 1,61,400 for Rohith respectively.
Student athletes from 170 countries will compete in 27 categories from gymnastics to water polo at the 27th Summer Universiade.