The high humidity and sudden spurt in temperature affected the athletes but didn’t deter their enthusiasm at the 37th National Games being held in Goa. Temperature notwithstanding, still there was enough heat to set the pool on fire as India’s big names competed in aquatics event.
While some of the top players in badminton and table tennis gave a miss to the Games, swimming was perhaps the toughest event as many meet records, both in women's and men’s events tumbled as the best of India’s swimmers vied for the coveted gold medals.
It was an exceptional performance by the Karnataka aquatic team, who finished with a haul of 39 medals that included 19 gold, eight silver and 12 bronze. Winning a single medal takes us to the highest level in any sporting field, but imagine someone winning 10 medals. It is simply an extraordinary achievement for any athlete, and Indian Olympian swimmer Srihari Nataraj, the pool sensation of the Games, achieved that rare feat in one of the toughest competitions that included big names like Asian bronze medallist Virdhawal Khade, Sajan Prakash and other record holders. Their women's team was not too far behind as Nina Venkatesh and Dhinidhi Desinghu won six gold medals each in the sport that decides one’s fortune in the course of a few seconds.
An elated Srihari said about his stunning performance, “It was a very good week for all of us and I had the responsibility to support my team in relay and medley events.” On the competition with Virdhawal and Sajan, he said, "I have known them for a very long time and it is always a pleasure competing with them and this was also the last time Virdhawal was competing at the national level.”
Speaking about his preparations, Srihari mentioned, “Training for such events is always tough and very long; six hours a day and six days a week, a swimmer needs to participate in the top level at the national and international competitions." Besides competitive swimming, Srihari is pursuing an MBA degree.
The team comprising Nina, Dhindhi, Vinith S Shankar and Srihari signed off with a gold in the final event, the 4x100m Mixed Medley in which each team is composed of two women and two men participants. It was a pulsating sight for the viewers and psychologically stressful for the swimmers. Srihari, started the race with a splash of backstroke, one of his favourite strokes to create a significant gap between his nearest arch-rival from Maharashtra. He added, “In a Medley, first two swimmers have to be very good so that it becomes easy for the third and fourth members of the team to build on a sizeable lead.” Almost six seconds of difference between them and silver medal winners Maharashtra, it was a cakewalk for Karnataka in the end.
Virdhawal Khade proved a point earlier by winning 50m Freestyle gold in the men’s competition and his wife Rujuta won the 50m Freestyle for women to become the fastest swimmers in the country, respectively, establishing new national records.
Sajan created a new national mark in Men’s 200m Medley, 200m Butterfly and 100m Butterfly to show that he is still the best in those categories. Kushagra Rawat excelled in 400m and 1500m Freestyle Men’s events and Bhavya Sachdeva in women’s 400m, 800m and 1500m Freestyle was a clear winner in the middle and long distance competition.
In the women’s section, Nina -- who won individual gold medals and also set new national records in her pet events 50m, 100m of butterfly stroke and four other categories -- was quite satisfied with the best performance in the 50m Butterfly. Pursuing her 12th standard pre-university college, an overjoyed Nina stated, “I am very happy with my performance. I didn’t expect more as I know for what I trained for and achieved during the Games. National Games are the last and longest Games of the season for swimmers, which is very tiring but this is what we are trained for."
After those exhaustive and tiresome preparations for the swimmers, it was all celebrations and time to relax and replenish their energies for the next big events, acknowledged Srihari and Nina.
Though the Goan women’s team members won three silver and three bronze medals, for Goan aquatics lovers, attending the big sporting events in their State was a great moment to build up the momentum for sporting excellence.
