www.specialolympicsbharat.org

May 2015

Greetings from Special Olympics Bharat!

Bringing out the Champion in the Athlete – The Coach

Rahgav Krishnan, Rohit Sawant and Bharat Chavan, Special Olympics Bharat Athletes from Maharashtra

gained entry into the Limca Book of Records 2015 for clocking an unbelievable 13 hours and 7 minutes‟

of non-stop swimming. Their performance was recorded by an external referee at Bal Kalyan Sanstha,

Pune.

http://www.limcabookofrecords.in/recordDetail.aspx?rid=85

To guide the Champions through is none other than Abhijeet Tambe, 38 yrs, who has been Coach with

SO Bharat for 10 years. Coaching Special Athletes in Aquatics has been his forte along with managing

them with utmost care and sensitivity. What can be more laudable than leading three athletes, together,

to the Limca Book of Records! Abhijeet went as Aquatics Coach for the Asia Pacific Regional Games in

December 2013 contributing immensely to a collective victory of 4 Gold, 21 Silver and 26 bronze medals

by the Aquatics contingent. As Head Coach Aquatics for the World Summer Games he is concentrating

on a holistic approach towards upgrading swimming skills of his trainees who are preparing for the

upcoming LA Games 2015.

He attended all the preparatory Camps counseling his trainees through sport skills, nutrition and hygiene.

His plan is rolled out at all times where he divides a 5 day camp into 2 days of practice and correction and

3 days of building stamina and sprinting where he clocks the performance of the Athletes. On a day to

day basis, his Athletes are monitored closely having to spend 2 hours of practice daily, out of which one

goes on practice rounds in the first hour and dedicates the next hour to corrections. For his Athletes

residing in cities other than Mumbai he coordinates with the local coaches and also keeps in touch with

the Athletes directly.

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His guidelines speak explicitly about keeping good health and consuming measured quantities of food as

vital ingredients of a good swimming round. “I have to caution Athletes, especially those with Down

Syndrome, about eating light , as a heavy meal would slow them down” , says Abhijeet. Currently, he is

concentrating on his Athletes who are going for the World Games and looks forward to going to Chennai

for the upcoming fourth Preparatory Camp.

Athletes take up the challenge of teeing off at a higher level

Special Olympics Bharat golfing trio, Ankush (20yrs) Kushagra

(18yrs) and Ranveer (14 yrs) participated at the 4th edition of

the Special Olympics Golf Masters 2015, Macao. Held from 20th

to 25th April, the tournament hosted 25 teams from 17

countries including UK, Denmark, Sweden Austria, South Africa,

Switzerland, Zimbabwe, China, Korea etc.

All three levels, namely, Level I, 2 and 5 were conducted across

three days. Level 1 is skills competition like chipping, putting and

iron shots. Level 2 is Unified play of 9 holes. Level 5 is a near

„mainstream Golf‟ competition based on individual stroke play

format. At this level the pin position, greens and tee boxes is as

difficult as mainstream golf positions. Kushagra played levels 1

and 2 while Ankush and Ranveer played level 5, opening SO

Bharat participation at this level. Team India has played Levels

1&2, until this year. It is noteworthy that Ranveer, all of 14,

competed against players who were between ages 20 and 43.

Kushagra Gaur was awarded the 1st Runner up trophy securing

2nd

position in level 1 while Ranveer Saini was awarded a 2nd

Runner up Trophy securing 3rd

position in level 5.Ankush Saha

held an overall 4th position in level 5.The tournament

additionally, served as a great platform for Athletes to practise

competition before they leave for the World Games 2015. View

Pics. More Pics

Young Athlete Program

Fun, frolic and simply more of it! As athletes and Partners met and clicked instantly against the

picturesque backdrop of Meghalaya the Young Athlete Program took off spreading excitement across

Parents, Volunteers and Resource Persons. Action songs broke the ice between athletes coming from

three special schools and partners from Stonyland Primary School. A Warm up session made the unified

group hop, jog, jump and change directions together. Day two graduated to focus on specific skills like

catching, throwing, striking, ball tapping and kicking. The third day took them to an obstacle course

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making them practise what they‟d learnt on the

previous days. The volunteers were there to guide,

motivate and assist them, preparing them with

basic skills required for Soccer, Basketball, Cricket

and Golf. Pics Following the same format with fun

as an essential ingredient Haryana and Tamil

Nadu too conducted the program, presenting this

experience to over 270 Special Athletes falling

between the age 2 and 7years.

Ready to Roll

Dolly‟s burn marks tell the tale of an incident that changed her life

forever. In a fire accident, Dolly lost her mother and had a miraculous

escape herself that left her with a few burn marks. But as the dark hour

lifted, she rose to the warmth of the SOS village, Bhopal, which is the

only SOS village in India for parentless children with disabilities. SOS

Village Bhopal

Dolly, 15 yrs, is an Athlete from Madhya Pradesh preparing to

compete in cycling at the World Summer Games 2015. She was

introduced to Special Olympics 2 years back through Ms. Pratibha

Shrivastava who has been Coach with SO Bharat for 14 years. At the

School within the SOS village she gained as much academic

experience as she could. Drawing, painting and playing with her

house-mates kept her busy. The seriousness of sport at Special

Olympics gave her focus and exposure showing signs of gradual transformation. “I can see tremendous

change in her behaviour. She is happy. She is excited. In fact she is very excited for the next camp as

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she says that she wants to meet her friends there”, says Pratibha.

Apart from Cycling her interest lies in Basketball and Badminton. But

for now it‟s only cycling. Under the guidance of her Coach her

practise regimen begins at 6AM every day, consisting of a warm up

round, stretching and a 12 km cycling round, covering 6km in the

morning and 6km in the evening. Her diet and medical fitness is

constantly monitored to enhance her stamina. She has participated

through the National Championship and all the Preparatory Camps

and is looking forward to the next one in Chennai to step up her skills

even more.

“I want new clothes, shoes, cycle” are her demands which her

guardians are proud and happy to fulfill, seeing her dedicated and

diligent practise sessions.

Unified Sports Events

Unified Football and Bocce were conducted at Jamshedpur, the steel city wherein close to 1000 Athletes,

Partners, Resource Persons &Volunteers participated.

Goa in collaboration with Keshav Seva Sadhana‟s School for Special Children organized Unified Bocce Games on 7th February 2015. Around 55 coaches from different Special schools following Unified Sports

training engaged with 18 Athletes from the school.

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SO Athletes and Bangalore Spurs

A day long Unified Football Program organized by Special Olympics Bharat- Karnataka and Bajaj Auto

Ltd. at the Rashtriya Military School, Bangalore further strengthened the budding partnership with

members of India Spurs, official supporters of Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. Bangalore Spurs members

engaged with Athletes in Warm up and drill sessions, finally making their way to a 7-a-side pitch to play

as teammates! Pics

Already having engaged with SO Athletes at a Tottenham Football Coaching Camp last year, this was

their first involvement playing and competing as teammates. From Delhi to Bangalore and now planning

to engage at Chennai and later, Mumbai, there sure is more to be seen between India Spurs and SO

Bharat in the days to come.

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