10-year-old Khar Gymkhana swimmer grabs two titles with record timings
MUMBAI: No just winning, but making it to the podium with style is what 10-year-old Rujuta Bhatt believes in. Two records in her name so far, which bettered even the national records, speak for itself the potential this swimmer from Khar Gymkhana has.
A standard V student from Jansubhai ML School in Khar, Bhatt first produced a record performance in the 200m individual medley (IM) and later in the afternoon on Sunday, caught the eye of all present at the Kalwa Municipal swimming pool, winning the 50m butter fly event with another record show. “I want to win and this is how I win,” says Rujuta, not bothered about the record not being documented.
Rujuta got off to a flying start in the individual medley (butterfly) and kept up the tempo throughout, reaching the 200m mark with a time of 2: 59.79, erasing the state-level record of 3:04.36 set by Gauri Desai in last year’s edition of the competition. She also bettered the national mark, set by Kalyani Basu (2:59.94), which was set in the 2003 nationals.
She then set her eye on the 50m butterfly, which was scheduled later in the day. “I will better the national mark,” she said even before the 50m butterfly race. After taking just a- half-a-minute ( 35.58 seconds), she got out of the pool and said, “I have done it.”
The previous state-level record in this category was held by Mahira Kokar (0:37.80) and the national mark (0:39.09) by Mohit Kumar. Both the records were set in the 2003 Nationals. Besides these two records, there were two more state-level records achieved. In the boys’ 200m freestyle, Pronoy Adhikary of Mumbai bettered the state mark, which was 4:32.85, with a time of 4:31.87. Still, this is much below the national record (4:13.60). In the girls 200m freestyle event, Arati Ghorpade clocked 4:57.24, erasing the state-level record of 5:10.78, set by Prathiha Joglekar in the year 2003.
No point making a record here
Although there are some remarkable timings being achieved in the state-level meets, these marks are not recorded or documented as there is no system set in place by the Swimming Federation of India to do this.
Maharashtra State Aquatic Association’s Raju Palkar said as there is no touch pad, and there is no representation from the SFI, these records are forgotten after the swimmers leave the pool.
Palkar, however, felt that the SFI should take a note of this and record these timings as it will be a morale booster to the young swimmers, citing the example of Rujuta Bhatt, who achieved, to no avail, record timings in the girls under-10 section twice on Sunday.
Palkar was sure that Bhatt will rewrite the records books in the nationals to be held in Bangalore in June.
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