PANAJI
Goa’s Purvi Ritesh Naik put up an impressive performance to bag 3 medals – 2 gold and 1 silver - at the 41st Sub-junior National Aquatic Championship held in Bengaluru on August 4 and 5.
Purvi won a gold in 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle and a silver in 400m freestyle.
Purvi’s superlative effort meant that she won the “Best Swimmer Award” in ‘Girls Group 3’ category, a rare feat for a Goan swimmer at the national level. The last time a Goan swimmer had won such an award was Talasha Prabhu, around 15 years ago.
The 12-year old girl from Harvalem, Sanquelim who studies in standard VII at St. John of the Cross High School, Sanquelim has been training under Sujith T A, Head Coach, Khelo India Goa centre since November 2022.
“Purvi’s results have been possible only to due her months of relentless hard work and intense training under the able guidance of coach Sujith. She hardly takes any holiday, there is no proper sleep, only hours and hours of training in water,” Purvi’s mother Namrata Ritesh Naik told The Goan.
Her mother further added, “Purvi wakes up at 4:00 AM and travels to Peddem Swimming Pool, Mapusa for training. Her training goes on from 5:00 AM - 7:30 AM. After coming home at Sanquelim, she has breakfast and reaches school. Even though she reaches school late, the school teachers and headmaster are very supportive and helpful. After coming from school, she again goes for training at the Campal Swimming Pool, Panaji at 3:00 PM. Training over there goes from 4:00 PM – 7:30 PM. She copes up with studies somehow and passes with good marks."
“Sometimes injuries happen but the headmaster Sunil Thomas has told that she can take offs whenever she requires during her competition,” Purvi’s mother said.
Purvi’s parents have sacrificed a lot in making her a champion swimmer.
Before joining Khelo India Centre in November 2022, she was schooling at St. Anne's Girls Primary School in Sanquelim. After joining Khelo India, they shifted to Panaji and Purvi studied at Mushtifund High school, Cujira in standard V and VI.
Now, they have shifted to their house in Sanquelim and this year onwards, Purvi has joined St. John of the Cross High School, Sanquelim for standard VII.
In a span of one year, Purvi’s timings have improved a lot.
This year Purvi won a gold in 100m freestyle with an impressive timing of in 1 minute 04.33 seconds. Last year, she had clocked 1 minute 07.22 to bag silver in the same event.
She also won a gold in 200m freestyle by clocking 2 minutes 18.35 seconds. In the same event, last year, she had bagged a bronze with a timing of 2 minutes 30.62 seconds.
In 400m freestyle, Purvi had to settle for silver as she clocked 4 minutes 55.38 seconds behind Karnataka’s Nyra Bopanna’s 4:53.96. Last year, her timings of 5 minutes 04.22 seconds had fetched her silver in the same event.
Among her future goals is to represent the country at the international level and win medals which she believes is possible to achieve.
