Ahmedabad-based Maana Patel (13) has set new records in the 50 metres, 100 metres and 200 metres backstroke events at the 67th Senior National Aquatics Championship staged in Trivandrum on November 20-24, and more recently at the School Games Federation of India-sponsored National School Games held in Pune from December 10-15. She bagged six gold medals at the two meets taking her personal medal tally in her five-year swimming career to 92 (71 gold, 16 silver and five bronze) to date. With the recent medals haul, Maana became the youngest swimmer in India to break three senior national records.

The only child of Rajiv Patel, an investment advisor, and Anal, a homemaker, this tall aquanant became interested in swimming from the time she jumped into the pool of the Sports Club, Ahmedabad, five years ago. I took to swimming like fish to water. So it was natural to take to competitive swimming which received the full backing of my parents, says Maana.

Her swimming career began at the Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad in July 2010, where she drew a blank. But in the 66th Enerzal Senior Nationals at Balewadi, Pune, she bagged a bronze and got an entry into the record books as the youngest ever senior nationals medals winner.
Since then, it’s been laurels all the way for Maana who is being forecast as a promising international medals hope. Despite her tender youth, this ambitious swimming star-in-the-making knows that great achievements dont materialise from thin air. I average four to five hours of practice a day, she says.

By no means a uni-dimensional teen, this class IX student of Ahmedabad’s EW Top 10 Udgam School also boasts an excellent academic record and has been averaging 80-90 percent. She is mentally very strong and is doing equally well in studies and swimming, says her father Rajiv, who has made repeated appeals to the state govern-ment to encourage sports other than cricket in the national interest.
Meanwhile, Maana has set her sights on the Incheon (Korea) Asian  as well as Commonwealth games (Glasgow) in 2014, for which she has intensified her training sessions.

Water wings!
R.K. Misra (Gandhinagar)