19 Malappuram women make history by swimming non-stop for 79 minutes

Thenhipalam: As many as 19 women at Chelembra Swimfin Swimming Academy have proved that you could conquer the waters at any age. They swam continuously for 79 minutes in a swimming relay event. Interestingly, half of them didn’t even know how to swim until two months ago. The group comprised women who were mostly above the age of 30 and some of them were even above 50. The credit for training them goes to their coach Hashir Cheloopadam. 

Hashir who has won the President’s Jeevan Raksha Pathak has trained more than 1200 people in the Pallikulam pond owned by Chelembra panchayat. 27 men who are past 40 are also training under Hashir at the Swimfin Academy. Their training starts at 6 am and lasts for an hour. 

Meanwhile, Hasir Cheloopadam said that he plans to conduct a swimming competition for veteran male and female swimmers in Chaliyar River in December. Joshita, Anashwara, Shamna, Soorya, Vasanti, Beena, Nisha, Nandana, Maya, Safariya, Sugatha, Jisi, Thahira, Anita, Najmunisa, Preeja, Rajalakshmi, Bhavya and Rajitha took part in the swimming event conducted on Independence Day. K Venugopal inaugurated the event. 

Ward member Pratheesh Kuttan, Swimfin convenor V Suresh, KV Shaji, KR Sreehari, Jyothi Basu, Navas Neelat, Purushothaman and Balakrishnan addressed the audience. Students at the Swimfin Academy and the officials presented mementos to the 19 women who took part in the swimming relay.