Gill was in the city to attend a two-day National symposium `Can India Ever Excel' in the international sports arena. Speaking at a technical session, he said the performance of sub-juniors players at a tournament staged at Bangalore, a couple of months back was quite encouraging.

Sachin allowed
CHENNAI: With rain spoiling their practice sessions at the nets on the first two days, the 22 Indian probables at the cricket camp here were forced to sweat it out for extended hours this morning, but willingly took the extra work load.

Meanwhile, Raj Singh Dungarpur, president, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), alongwith former captains S Venkataraghavan and K Srikkanth were also present.

The BCCI chief said Sachin Tendulkar had been given permission toskip the camp for a couple of days to attend Don Bradman's 90th birth anniversary celebrations at Adelaide and to receive the Khel Ratna award in New Delhi.

Swimming fiesta
CALCUTTA: The 55th Long Distance Swimming competition, organised by the Murshidabad Swimming Association, will take place on the river Bhagirathi on August 30. Recognised as a National event by the Swimming Federation of India and acknowledged as the longest swimming competition by FINA, is divided into three sub-competitions. The 81-kilometre category with a maximum allotted time of 12 hrs 30 mins, will have 17 participants.

The 19-km meet for boys has 37 competitors while the event for women over the same distance will feature 20 girls.

The competition with a budget of Rs 3 lakh, will cover all swimmers with temporary accidental insurance. Well-known long distance swimmers like Taranath Shenoy, Bula Chowdhury, Masudar Rehman Baidya among others, will compete in the meet.