Partha Varanashi from Puttur becomes first Austswim presenter, aims to boost standards

Partha Varanashi, a 29-year-old from the state, has become India’s first Austswim presenter for swimming and water safety.

With this accreditation under his belt, Partha can coach swimmers in India, instead of a representative from Australia visiting the country. This achievement is part of an initiative by former Indian Olympian Hakimuddin Shabbir Habibulla to improve swimming training standards .

Under the programme Winning Matters, Austwim, Australia’s national organisation for the teaching of swimming and water safety provided professional and systematic training to swimming teachers from across India.

Ceri Weeks, a representative from Austswim, conducted the courses in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Mangaluru.

“With Austswim making its presence felt in India, swimming training is expected to get a whole new dimension. Training is going to be holistic and systematic with a strong foundation. The curriculum is vast, which includes child psychology, behaviour patterns and safety and candidates have to under go online tests. There is a 200page manual and there is an option to interact online,” said Partha, who has received a soft copy of the accreditation and will travel to Australia for the actual presentation.

Partha who trains about 40 budding competitive swimmers at the Balavana swimming pool in Puttur and who was responsible to teach 900 students of a swim school in South Australia before returning to India two years ago, said this was just the first lap.

“Since I worked in Australia, I know the standards. The journey has just begun. In India, the focus is only on competitions, while Austswim focuses on technique. The change will not happen overnight. It may take years like it did in Australia, but I am confident that Austswim will bring in changes in swimming standards of India,” he said.

Partha was the Mangalore University’s champion swimmer for three years (20032005). He was also a threetime national Indian swimming finalist, South Australian Masters Swimming record holder (2009) and has over ten gold medals won in Aussie Masters, SA event in the year 2009 and 2010 and coached and trained over 900 swimmers in Australia.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Sport> Others / by Deepthi Sanjiv, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / November 26th, 2014