Khade, who is all set to take part in five events, is among 850 swimmers from nearly all states across the country along with participants from Railways, Services and Police.
The championships, to be organised by Swimming Federation of India, will see competition in three disciplines -- swimming, water polo and diving -- at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex located at Balewadi here, a media release said today.
Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Railways generally take the top honours in the nationals while Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi also have started showing improved performance.
Apart from Khade, the first Indian since Khazan Singh Tokas in 1986 (Seoul) to climb the medal podium in the Asian Games, other top swimmers who would take part are Saurabh Sangvekar, Aaron D'souza, Gagan A P, Sandeep Sejwal, Talasha Prabhu, Richa Mishra, Surbhi Tipre, Rohit Havaldar, Rujuta Bhat, Akansha Vora, Vandita Dhariyal and Neil Contractor.
In diving, some of the main competitors taking part are T Hari Prasad, Rutika Sriram, Himanshu Tiwari, K Ramanand Sharma and Pushkar.
In water polo, Railways, Services, Police, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Kerala are the main teams.
SFI is focused on identifying potential swimming champions in India and is also committed to making swimming a high priority in the Indian sports landscape, the release added.
