Posted: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:20 AM - 10,269 Readers

By: India Today

The field of participating teams at the Lake Travis swimming relay in Austin, USA, last week included as big a name as cycling legend Lance Armstrong, but it was Delhi girl Meenakshi Pahuja who grabbed the limelight.

Armstrong's 'SwimStrong' team won the relay competition comprising about 15 sixman teams, but Meenakshi became the only individual to attempt and complete the herculean 12-mile open-water swim.

Meenakshi braved winds that varied between five and 20 miles per hour and extremely choppy water to become the first Indian to complete the solo event with a time of seven hours, 10 minutes and 24 seconds, on a day that the organisers, American Swimming Association, called "perhaps the most challenging day in this event's eight-year history". The 34-year-old, who earlier this year had become the first Indian to swim 12.5 miles around Key West in Florida, said the achievements were all down to her quest for new challenges.

"Every water body poses a different challenge - with the wind, the current, the tide, the underwater life. Key West was salty ocean water and had a risk of sharks, though I never saw one. At Lake Travis, I had to conquer gusting winds of about 20 miles per hour over the last two miles. There had been a drought in the area this year, but that day it was raining cats and dogs. Both were really hard swims, and it is not fair to compare one with the other," she said.

Meenakshi has to train herself and travel without a professional coach, with only her father or her sister to accompany her. Asked how she prepared for such demanding endurance races while living in a city like Delhi, Meenakshi said: "It's a very demanding sport, but I can't help it as it is a call of passion. Being a physical educationist, I have a strong background of training methods and sports science. My older sister is a doctor of naturopathy and always suggests the best protein and carbohydrate diet. If I had sponsors, I could have included therapeutics and recovery as well, but these swims are very difficult to pursue without sponsors. I have approached the Delhi government, so let's see what happens."

Meenakshi was a dominant force at the national level in conventional swimming too, and believes the current crop of upand- coming swimmers can succeed at the highest level. "Swimmers like Prasanta Karmakar and Veerdhawal Khade are doing well, and the young ones are making waves at Asian championships etc too - the first time Indians have started getting that kind of exposure, which had been missing in times gone by. Mostly the teams were sent at no cost to the government, and obviously some of the best had to withdraw. I am happy to see that things are changing for the better, but the pace is still slow.

"I would call the Indian swimmers talented and having potential, and now it is about nurturing that talent and keeping things like groupism and favoritism out of the equation. Honestly speaking, I would not say that swimming as a sport has progressed that much in our country, but surely swimmers individually have progressed," she said.

*  Story Contributed by: India Today