Aravind Mani (13) is a quintessential amphibian. Winner of three gold medals (50 m backstroke, 100 m backstroke and 200 m individual medley) in the 25th sub-junior nationals held at Kolkata in June this year, this Bangalore boy has been at home in the water world ever since he was three.
A decade later, Aravind displays the potential of a backstroke sprint Olympic champion. At the recent nationals in Kolkata he won the sub-junior 100 m backstroke title with a timing of 1 minute and 13.40 seconds which according to his coaches is promising for a boy of his age. “Although I won the gold medal, quite obviously I have a long way to go to get near the olympic timing,” he says.
Although in his formative years Aravind swam at the local club pool for pleasure, by the time he attained the age of eight he resolved to specialise in aquatics. Therefore in 2003 his parents, Appadorai Mani (who runs his own printing business) and Kalpana (a homemaker) signed him up for coaching at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre (BAC), Bangalore’s well-known nursery of competitive swimmers including Nisha Millet (Olympics 2000 200 m freestyle finalist) and Rehan Pooncha (Olympics 2008 200 m butterfly finalist).
After one year of intensive coaching, which involved waking up at 5 a.m, in 2004 his coach V. Padmanabha Rao decided that his nine-year-old ward was ready for competitive aquatics. Aravind made his debut with a bang at a south zone meet at Neyvelli, Tamil Nadu where he won three gold medals (50 m backstroke, 100 m backstroke and 200 m individual medley).
A class VII student of Bangalore’s highly rated St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School, Aravind is aware that his parents spend considerable time and money to develop his budding talent. According to his mother Kalpana, a provision of Rs.100,000 is made in the annual family budget to pay for training and travel expenses. “In this country government support for promising sportspersons is negligible and parents have to assume the burden. But we don’t mind making financial sacrifices to support our children’s sports education,” says Kalpana who is also preparing to fund her younger son Avinash (10) who has recently signed up for coaching at the BAC pool.
“By the end of this year I intend to reduce my 100 m backstroke timing to 1:08. By the first quarter of next year, I will smash the men’s national record (1:01). By the end of 2009 I will equal the existing Commonwealth Games record. If this requires doubling my practice hours from four currently, I’m ready to do whatever it takes,” says Aravind with steely determination.
Power to your fins!
Rajeev Yeshwanth (Bangalore)