NEW DELHI, Mar 19: Syamala Goli, a 47-year-old ace Indian swimmer, became the second woman and thirteenth overall to successfully swim 30 kilometres across the Palk Strait from Thalaimannar, Sri Lanka, to Dhanushkodi, India.
The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka stated, “Syamala had competed for India in the 2019 Federation Internationale De Natation (FINA) World Masters Championship in Gwangju, South Korea, and in November 2020, she swam a 30 km stretch in Patna’s Great Ganges River and finished sixth with a timing of 110 minutes.
Velupillai Kandaiah Sivagnanam, chairman of the Northern Provincial Council, flagged off the swimming expedition. The project symbolises the people-to-people connectivity between India and Sri Lanka, as well as their close and friendly relations forged over millennia, he said.
Syamala, a multi-talented animation film producer, director, and writer, only started swimming four years ago. She has been training at SATS swimming pool in Gachibowli with her coach Ayush Yadav. After her successful expedition, she said she was convinced that crossing the Palk Strait will be a defining moment for women everywhere, and she hopes that it will encourage them to believe that nothing is impossible.
(Venkatesh Iyer)
