Mineka a different rhythm

Angu RAJENDRAN

'The whole secret of swimming the breast stroke is in the technique', says Mineka Karunaratne, national record holder of the 50 metres and 100 metres breast stroke

events and swimming captain of Asian International School.

The crawl, the dolphin and the back stroke are man's desperate attempts to emulate the fish-substituting hands and legs for fins and tails. The breast stroke, however, is the glide of the four-limbed frog and it is the perfect stroke for man or woman to copy since we too have the required four limbs.

According to Mineka, 'the breast stroke is the only stroke with a different rhythm and once you get the rhythm right then you don't need strength to go faster, only technique.' 'It is mostly in the legs' says Mineka.

Mineka learnt to swim when she was nine years old as her father decided that he did not want his only child to drown if she went to the beach or a pool in a beach resort. She had no idea about competitive swimming at that time.

She would take part in the inter-house swimming meets at St Bridget's Convent just for fun, where she would either win or come second to her best friend Daniella Joshua. Both of them were students at Rainbows Academy.

Julian Bolling (former National/Olympic swimmer and Head of the Rainbows Swimming Academy) decided to send her for the Novices Swimming Meet when she was 13 years old. Winning a gold medal at that meet was a turning point for Mineka.

She realized that she was a competitive swimmer: a force to be reckoned with. Since that day, her training began in earnest. Mineka joined Asian International School as she knew that her talent would be appreciated and encouraged and started training at least 3 hours a day.

She set herself short term goals - to improve her timing every day. Apparently she is timed every session. Her aim has never been to be faster than another swimmer but only to improve herself. She says 'if I try to be faster than X or Y then I am limiting myself.'

After a steady improvement in her swimming, her best and most glorious moment being the SAAF trials of 2006 when though she came in second to Mayumi Raheem, she swam her personal best and beat many of the stalwarts in the breast stroke.

Ever since then the breast stroke has become her pet event and other swimmers choose the other strokes.

Soon after that, she swam at the SAAF games just about qualifying for the finals in the 50m and 100m breast stroke. However, she says that she became stagnant soon after that. Her London O' level exams loomed just three months away. She tried so hard and trained almost eight hours a day but simply could not improve her timing. According to Mineka, 'talking to coach Julian Bolling really helped.' He explained to her that there comes a time in every swimmer's career when you just stagnate. However hard you try and try, you can't improve but you just have to push through it.' She says that she stooped swimming for three moths before her exams and concentrated on her work. Mineka is a very good student academically and came through the exams with flying colours obtaining 7 As and one A*.

Soon after her exams when she went back to her swimming, all the kinks in her strokes had ironed themselves out.

She had forgotten her mistakes and was swimming better than ever before. 'That was the best break that I ever took' Mineka says. Apparently Julian stagnated for five years and just swam and swam through it. 'I don't think that I could have lasted that long or even tried so long. I would have just given up' says Mineka with an admiring smile for her coach and mentor.

But her slag was short-lived and she came out of it by bettering the record set by Mayumi Raheem in the 100m breast stroke at the Swimming Nationals in 2008 and receiving the Most Outstanding Sportswoman of the year award. Now as she trains to break the SAAF records in February 2010, in Bangladesh, she feels that only the sky is the limit. Everyday she feels that she is getting better at her stroke.

Why won't she swim the other three strokes? 'Well I hate the dolphin and I will choose the crawl if I have to swim another stroke but somehow I don't like the rhythm of these other strokes. It does not suit me.' she says.

Swimming about 5000m to 8000m, six days a week must be pretty boring for a 17 year old while all the others are out there partying and having fun or at least playing team games. But no, Mineka finds being in the water very relaxing.

Her close friends are out there swimming as well and she barely has time to think about partying leave alone miss it, as she tries to catch up with her studies whenever she has any spare time.

On Sundays, she is with her books. Her only outing will be to the church after which she catches up on assignments and all her school work. She listens in class and questions her teachers a lot because she knows that she will never have time to clear her doubts if she leaves it for later.

She goes to bed not later than nine every night, listening to music. Her days begin and end early and she has no time for dreams. 'I don't dream about swimming in the Olympics' she says. 'If it comes my way, then I will train really hard and do my best but I just want to be happy.' 'I plan to go to Australia for my higher studies as I want to swim while I study to become a lawyer and Australia is the best place for that.'

'I always like to set short term goals. Right now as swimming captain of AIS, I would like to set an example to all the juniors and win the Inter-International Swimming Championships after breaking the SAAF record for the 50m and 100m breast stroke.

Of course the 100 metres is my favourite. The 50 metres finishes too fast and the 200 metres is too long. The 100 metres is just right. Her timing is going strong 1 min 14:77 secs and soon Mineka Karunartne might be checking out the 100 metres breast stroke record for the 2012 London Olympics.