Khopade wins 2 golds, silver and bronze

Pune: Young swimmer Siddhant Khopade returned with a commendable collection of 2 gold, a silver and a bronze medal at the recently concluded 70th FISEC-FICEP Games 2018 held in Genk, Belgium.

Representing India on behalf of the School Sports Federation of India (SSFI), Khopade struck four medals in one of the highlight of India’s performance in Belgium. India participated in three events--football (boys), volleyball (girls) and swimming (boys).

“Performance of Khapade was exceptional given the tough competition out there,” said Vitthal Shirgaonkar, Secretary of SSFI.

Khopade’s gold medals came in 50m backstroke and 100m butterfly events, while he won 200m butterfly silver and 100m backstroke bronze medal.

India was represented in girls volleyball by Pune’s Millennium School, which made it to the knockout stage where they beat Spain and ended in sixth position overall. The boys’ football team finished 8th overall.

A total of 18 countries participated in the Games which was organised by Flemish School Sports Association under the aegis of Federation de International Catholic School Sports.

“FISEC Games are a good platform for school students to prepare for Olympic Games given that the best athletes of the given age group compete at these games,” said Shirgaonkar.