Hyderabad, May 29 : Shyamala, the 47-year-old from Telangana and the second Indian woman to swim across the Palk Strait, met Sports Minister V.Srinivas Goud here on Saturday and sought financial assistance.
On March 19 this year, Shyamala swam across the 30 km stretch of Palk Strait (Ram Setu) for 13 hours and 43 minutes from Talaimannar, Sri Lanka to Arichalmunai, India.
With this, she became the second Indian woman after Bhula Chaudhary to have crossed the Palk Strait and first person from Telangana to have achieved the milestone.
Shyamala was also selected for the long distance open water swimming championship scheduled to be held in Los Angeles likely in October this year.
The Minister assured her of providing financial assistance and appreciated her for being selected for the Championship
He said that the government is dedicated to help all the athletes who bring laurels to the country and the State.
The government will bring Sports Policy in the state and once it comes into effect, it will help athletes and develop the infrastructure for the sports in the state, the Minister added.
She was trained and guided by senior IPS officer Rajiv Trivedi and Shyamala began her rollercoaster career in swimming by crossing Ganga Open Water in Patna up to a distance of 13 km in 2019.
In 2019, she swam across River Krishna in Vijayawada, River Ganga in Patna and River Hooghly in Kolkata.
She also represented Telangana at the 2020 FINA World Masters Championship which was held in Guwanju, South Korea.
Shyamala had also competed at the 2019 National Open Water Ganga River Swimming Championships and also participated at the 2019 open-sea swimming championships which was held at Porbandar in Gujarat.(UNI)