A LOOK INTO THE GMAAA DIVING COMPETITION 2022 !!

Today I'm going to write about something completely different..... I'll be covering a diving competition that took place last weekend, organized by GMAAA (greater Mumbai amateur aquatic association) and hosted by Otters Club in Mumbai. It was a very well-organized competition, so I'd like to thank Gmaaa. For those who aren't familiar with Gmaaa, it is essentially an aquatic association that has been organizing swimming, diving, and water polo events not only in Mumbai but all across India. They have been very instrumental in promoting aquatics, which is still a developing sector in Indian sports, particularly sports like diving and water polo. Furthermore, they have been organizing these competitions for quite some time now and have grown a lot ever since... This competition was held for both boys and girls, and because it was an open senior competition, there were no age restrictions. The 1m and 3m springboard events were held, and the prizes were definitely something to get excited about, as they included cash prizes of up to 20,000 for the best male and female divers, and the gold medalist would receive ₹1000, so it was great for Gmaaa to give out cash prizes. It encourages athletes even more to see their hard work get rewarded because all of these athletes have been training for months, if not years, and only have such competitions to prove themselves and when organizers give out cash prizes it drives them even more to win because you know so many of these athletes need the money and not everyone is from a well-to-do background so giving out cash prices is definitely a mandatory thing all organizers should take into consideration. I competed in this competition as well, taking part in the 1m springboard, and although I came fourth, I believe my performance could have been much better, but I performed fairly well and enjoyed myself while competing and watching others compete, it was an amazing experience...... The gold medalist for both events in the boys section was Kabir Rao, and the gold medalist for the women's section was Medhali Redkar, who also won gold in this year's National games held in Rajkot. Both of them were named best divers in this competition and received a cash prize of 20,000. They performed very well and definitely deserved to win. So overall, this competition was very well run. I would also like to thank Otters Club, their facilities were really good, especially the springboards, which helped all the divers perform their very best. However, the only concern I had was with the depth of the pool, which was shallow for most divers because the force with which we enter the pool is a lot , and most divers end up touching the floor ,In fact even in this competition a few divers got hurt on their hand or their chin because of the depth of the pool…. So that would be my only critique of this competition otherwise, it was fantastic!!

CONCLUSION To conclude, all I'd like to say is that I hope more associations like GMAAA will form so that there is more awareness spread about aquatic sports like diving because I still believe that not many people are aware of the sport in India and even abroad, despite the fact that it is a bigger sport in countries like China, the United States, and Australia. The more people who are aware of the sport, the more support and encouragement athletes and future divers will receive. I can't say that diving will become as popular as football in a day, but I am confident that if more people become interested in the sport and begin watching the competitions online and in person, it will help athletes and become a small step for the sport to grow.... Being an athlete myself, I can speak for all other athletes when I say that seeing a large crowd of spectators and all the cheering we get after dives only motivates and encourages us to perform even better. So I hope you can spread the word about diving and other aquatic sports because one small step leads to another and as we say "never underestimate the importance of small steps" and I genuinely think this quote speaks for itself. I hope you enjoyed this week's blog, it was certainly not your typical blog topic, but please leave your feedback and questions in the comment section below!!

How do you think aquatics can become more known in the years to come ?