Conquering the much hyped English Channel has always been every swimmer's grail. Many successful and even more unsuccessful attempts have been made to subjugate the channel that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. UK's Matthew Wade in 1875 was the first recorded person to swim across the English Channel. Bangladesh's Brojen Das was the first Asian to do so. Mihir Sen and Arati Saha were the first Indians to achieve the feat.
Come June 2018 and another Indian will try to overpower the mighty English Channel. Assam's Elvis Ali Hazarika is no new name in the sporting landscape of India. Every 90's kid in Assam must have grown hearing his accolades and aspiring to be like Elvis. 'Jalkonwar' , as he was fondly called had started showing glimpses of his brilliance at a very early age. He had crossed the Joysagar lake in Sibsagar at a tender age of 5. He had started swimming at the Nabin Sarma swimming club since he was 3 years old. Elvis broke 3 National Records at the 6th Junior National Swimming Championship in 1996. He along with Mithoo Baruah were the star swimmers from Assam. At the age of 9, Elvis represented the India in the Asia Pacific Swimming Championship in the year 1991. Along with that, he has represented the country in South Asian Federation Games in 1995 and 1999 and the World Police Games in 2009.
Today, at a press event in Guwahati, Elvis addressed the media and confirmed that he will attempt to cross the English Channel on June 3rd'2018. The water at that time of the year is much colder. Elvis talked about the way he was betrayed by the people who promised to help him financially for this event. The dias urged the Assamese people and the government to come over to help Elvis financially and wished him good luck for his upcoming record attempt. He was earlier supposed to attemp the feat in 2016 but due to financial constraints he could not. Here's wishing Elvis all the luck.
Comments
Post a Comment