Patna, Nov. 6: The 7th National Open Water Swimming Competition at Shiva Ghat, Digha, today hit troubled waters.

Preparations were afoot to make the inaugural function of the event a hit. But before the competition could start, a senior member of Bihar Swimming Association threatened to stop organising the event from the next year if the state continued to give swimming a step-mother- ly treatment.

Ram Vilas Pandey, the secretary of the association, accused the state government of negligence in promoting swimming in the state.

Pandey, while addressing swimmers who had assembled here from different parts of the country for the event, said: “We started the national-level swimming competition in 2002 but the state government has never provided us with any financial help or logistic support to organise the tournament.”

To add fuel to fire, sports minister Sukhda Pandey was absent from the function. Even senior officials of the sports department were elusive.

Those present — state labour resources minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal, Kumhrar BJP MLA Arun Kumar Sinha and Digha JD(U) MLA Poonam Devi — were speechless after hearing Pandey.

A shocked Sigriwal, whose ministry can do nothing to help the association, said the government was serious about promoting sports in Bihar.

The association’s secretary later told The Telegraph: “Many ace swimmers from Bihar have shifted to other states because of lack of logistic and financial assistance from the government. The state doesn’t even have a good pool. While swimming in a pool, a person learns many techniques which is not possible to master in open water,” added Pandey.

In the open-water championship, swimmers had to swim 13km from Shiva Ghat at Digha to Law College Ghat in river Ganga. Forty-two swimmers from across India had come to participate in the daylong event.

Milan Haldar from Bengal finished first in the men’s category while Piyali Adak from the same state touched the finishing line first in the women’s category.

Jayesh Bhagat, 14, who had come from Pune for the event said: “Swimming in open water is different from swimming in a pool. In open water, one should have the stamina to continuously swim for hours.”