other-sports

Updated: Dec 08, 2017 19:27 IST

Visually impaired swimmer Kanchanmala Pande brought laurels to the country by becoming the first Indian to clinch a gold medal at the World Para Swimming Championship in Mexico on Thursday.

Pande, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) employee, emerged triumphant in the 200- meter medley event in S-11 category. Speaking to reporters after the match, the 26-year- old swimmer said that though she had hoped to win a medal during the championship, she didn’t think she would go on to finish first.

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It’s not always been smooth sailing for Kanchanmala Pande, though. While participating in the Para Swimming Championships in Germany in July earlier this year, she had to beg for survival in Berlin after she didn’t receive the government money sanctioned for her tour. These odds, though, did little to dampen the spirit of the champion player from Nagpur as she went on to bag a silver medal there that earned her a ticket for the World Championships.

In the World Championships that started on December 2, Pande was the lone female swimmer from India to have qualified for the event. She was selected to represent India in the 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m breaststroke and 200m individual medley categories.

Although Pande narrowly missed out on a medal in the 100m freestyle race earlier, she more than compensated for it by securing the top position in the 200-metre medley.