She wishes to set pool on fire

Khar Gymkhana’s Rujuta Bhatt exited the Maharashtra State Amateur Aquatic Championships that concluded in Thane this week with a mixed bag of emotions. She was satisfied with her performance after bagging five gold medals with two meet records but dissatisfied at not being capped the best swimmer in her age group - under-14.

“I surely feel it’s not fair, but the girl who was eventually awarded the best swimmer’s trophy set more meet records than me. That’s how the system works and I have to accept it,” she quipped.

Rujuta won all the events she participated in the competition — 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 100m butterfly. She created state records in 200m freestyle with a time of 2:21:67 and 100m butterfly in 1:09:25.

Rujuta now aims to create waves at the junior nationals to be held in Jaipur from June 23-27. “I want to win all the events in Jaipur. It won’t be easy, but I am doing my bit. I attend two practice sessions a day,” she said.

Rujuta’s coach Subodh Danke is aiming at the Junior Asian Swimming Championships scheduled later this year. “In 100m butterfly Rujuta is only one second away from the qualifying times for the Asian Championships. We hope to make it happen,” he said. 
Aqua feat

Rujuta has participated at the age group nationals five times.

She has 11 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals from national meets.

The Mumbai girl also participated at the 2009 Hyderabad senior nationals, where she won 2 gold and 1 silver medal in relay events.