Bengaluru: Thirty years, thirty Senior National Aquatic Championship wins. Such has been Karnataka's stranglehold over swimming events in India.
The recently-concluded 77th edition of the Championships in Mangaluru saw Karnataka swimmers excel once again, with new faces taking up the mantle to ensure sustained dominance for years more to come.
One such emerging star has been Aneesh S Gowda, who racked up five gold medals at the Nationals, and also took home the men's individual title for 'Best swimmer'.
Aneesh was the standout in the freestyle category, winning the 200 metre, 400 metre, 800 metre, 1500 metre and 4x200 metre freestyle relay events.
The 20-year-old, who still holds the junior 400 metre freestyle National Record, looked back at a fantastic breakthrough tournament and highlighted how careful strategising gave him an edge over his competitors.
"Mangaluru was a very good meet for me. I got a personal best as well (in 400m freestyle). I was pretty happy with the performance. This has been a good confidence booster for upcoming selections.
"Going to the meet, I had trained well and coach and I strategised on how swim the distance events because it was a bit humid as well. Doing more drills, feeling the water so that you don’t slip water and catch more water, getting more distance per stroke and also breathing exercises are a few things I worked on recently," Aneesh told DH.
Aneesh, who has been training at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre under Nataraj V since 2013, feels that freestyle suits his inherent strengths the most.
"Freestyle is my preferred stroke. Mid-distance and long distance both, I have good endurance. I do butterfly as well, but freestyle I have been doing for a long time. I have a good technique and still have a lot of things to work on where I can get better and faster as well."
When asked how swimmers push each other to new lengths and find those extra hundredths of a second, Aneesh, a self-proclaimed Formula 1 fan, narrowed it down to practice, constant support from seniors and a good camaraderie.
"Whatever time you want to reach or whatever weaknesses you have to improve on, practice is the only way. If you keep doing that in practice and visualising where you have improved upon and how much time you want to gain, that will reflect in the competitions," Aneesh said.
"We have been winning the National Championship for 30 years and we just know that we have to defend the title. All the coaches push us towards that so we all motivate each other to do good and get back the title.
"It is amazing to see someone like Dhinidhi (Desinghu), who is fourteen, represent India. That is really inspiring and it encourages others to work harder. Our seniors Sajan Prakash, Srihari Nataraj are really inspiring. They all give us tips. That is how the swimming fraternity is in Bengaluru, everybody tries to help each other," Aneesh outlined.
Aneesh, who did his schooling at Sri Aurobindo Memorial School and is currently pursuing law at Christ University, said that he would have to balance practice sessions built around ironing out weaknesses with his educational pursuits.
"As of now we are waiting for the calendar. There is nothing coming up for six months. My coach should have identified some weaknesses which we will work hard on, so we have some time to hone those skills and polish them. When I am not competing, I have to catch up on my studies a little," Aneesh detailed.
"Every athlete’s dream is to participate in the Olympics. I would love to qualify for the Olympics and even get a medal. That is the dream," Aneesh added on his career goals.