Swimming
Meet Apeksha Fernandes - An Indian swimming sensation who set 5 National Records in 5 days
Teen wonder, Apeksha Fernandes, has become a swimming prodigy after creating four National Records in just four days at the Junior National Championship.
Apeksha Fernandes (Source: Daijiworld)
India is known for its parents to be quite stubborn when it comes to what their children do in their lives. A wide-eyed Apeksha Fernandes, hailing from Maharashtra, had a similar path years ago.
Having an under-10 Tennis champion for a brother meant Mr. and Mrs, Fernandes wished their daughter to follow their son's footsteps and take up the racquet. However, one fine day, former Indian swimming coach Dr. Mohan Reddy discovered little Apeksha's strokes in the water.
From taking his daughter to the IIT Bombay tennis court for practice, Prof. BG Fernandes, her father, started taking her to the campus's swimming pool.
Cut to 2022, Apeksha has become a promising young swimmer who broke four national records in the span of just four days. But, her adventures in the water date back to 2013.
Her first medal, a silver, came at the girl's 50m breaststroke U-8 event at the Greater Mumbai Amateur Aquatic Association's swim meet. Since then, Apeksha has climbed all the rungs of various local, district, and state championships to reach her record-breaking form.
Fernandes won her first Nationals medal in 2015 after winning silver in the 50m breaststroke event at the impressionable age of just 10.
At the 46th Junior National Aquatic Championship in 2017, Apeksha won a record seven gold medals, thereby winning the first prize in all five races she took part in. She even made three new national records to her name, a penchant Apeksha just cannot let go.
Even in 2019, she clinched two golds, in 200m butterfly and 50m breaststroke, at the sub-junior and Junior National Aquatic Championships, where seemed to better her timings with every passing round.
At the ongoing 2022 National Junior Aquatic Championships, four new best Indian performances were created by 17-year-old Apeksha. On 16th July, she recorded 1:12:83 in the 100m breaststroke event, which bettered the standing record held by Chahat Arora's 1:14:42.
Another record formerly held by Arora in the 50m breaststroke was improved by Fernandes after recording 33.49s. This historic record was made by the youngling on the following day, the 17th of July.
18th July saw Apeksha swim the 100m butterfly in 1:01:94, almost a second better than erstwhile record holder, Astha Choudhury's 1:02:71 timing.
19th July marked her fourth record after excelling in the 200m Individual medley event. Apeksha broke Richa Mishra's 2:23:62 timing with her 2:21:34 performance.
Finally, Fernandes added another, and her fifth, record after clocking 2:40:36 in the 200m breaststroke event, which bettered the former record created by Saloni Dalal's 2:41:88. With this, all records in the breaststroke events are in Apeksha's name!
