Vijayawada: More than 600 competitors participated in the 25th Krishna River cross swimming competitions here on Sunday. The 1.5 km long swimming competition from the Durga Ghat to the southern side Lotus Pond in Krishna river is a challenge that attracts swimmers from various states across the country.
Vijayawada East MLA Gadde Ramamohan Rao flagged off the competitions in which competitors, both men and women, in seven age categories participated.
Addressing the gathering, Gadde Rammohan commended the sportive spirit of the swimmers who formed from 10 years to 80 years. He lauded the Aqua Devils for organising such competition with the cooperation of AP State Disaster Management who give protection to the swimmers with expert swimmers, speed boats, and thirty country boats which carry senior swimmers.
The organisers used electronic chips to register the timing. Amaravati Festival committee president Dr Kamineni Pattabhiramaiah and BJP leader Paturi Nagabhushanam were the chief guests who distributed prizes to the winners in the competitions.
In the Men category Yasasvi, Rishkesh Varma and Shanmukha Raghava secured first, second and third places in the 10-15 years category.
Likewise, in the category of 16-20 Sai Nihar, Ritvik, and King George, in the category of 21-30 PV Satyanarayana, LPCD Saurathur and Gautam K, in the 31-40 category Tulasi Chaitanya and Nagarjuna Reddy, in the category of 41-50 B Prakash Rao, Tulasi Nagaraju, Jonnalagadda Ramakrishna and above 60 years category Kulasekhar, Mohan Rao and Katragadda Ajay secured first three places. In the women wing, Venyasri, Ramyasri, Nisha Agarwal shared the first three places in 10-15 years category, Karnika Gupta, Santhi, and Ramalakshmi in 16-20 category, Manasa, Pramodottama and Kirtana in 21-30 category, Kiran Mounika, Dimple Krishna and Sakkuntala Devi in 31-40 category, Sunita, Sruti Prasad, Lakshmi Soujanya in 41-50 category, Indrani, Padmapriya and Ch Rajani in 51-60 category and Padmapriya, Suryakantam and Vijayasri Gupta in above 60 year category shared the first three places.
The winners were presented with silver coins weighing 50 grams, 30 grams and 20 grams along with certificates.
Convener Dr Dasari Yugandhar, president Velagapudi Venkateswara Rao, secretary Mandapati Narasaraju, vice-president Lingapalli Ramakrsihna, Umamaheswara Reddy, Pulipati Srinivas, Yarlagadda Ramesh, V Suresh Kumar, Military Sambasiva Rao, Udumula Venkata Reddy, Odipina Ramachandra Reddy, Yarramsetti Srinivasa Rao, Karri Sambaiah and others
participated.
