For India’s quickest swimming couple, a freestyle love story and a podium end

The very last thing they needed to do on their marriage ceremony anniversary was to be on a flight. A dinner, the joys of a uncommon cheat meal, and a quiet celebration is what they wished for. The drudgery of airports, lengthy safety queues and a journey to Hyderabad is what they received.

Per week later, Rujuta and Virdhawal Khade returned residence to Mumbai – as India’s quickest couple within the water.

At the recently-concluded National Championships in Hyderabad, Rujuta shattered a 20-year-old nationwide file within the girls’s 50m freestyle, the shortest distance in Olympic-style swimming, clocking 26.47 seconds.

Virdhawal, a former Asian Games bronze medallist, prolonged his dominance in Indian swimming pools by profitable two titles, the 50m butterfly and freestyle with a timing of 24.09 seconds and 22.82 seconds respectively.

“It’s unreal,” Rujuta, 27, sighs. “I mean, look where we were when we got married, both of us were not even swimming,” Virdhawal, 31, beams.

It’s been a few days since their feat. The duo stand subsequent to the pool of Western Mumbai’s Khar Gymkhana for pictures, acutely aware of greater than a dozen gazing eyes.

It’s right here that their story started eight years in the past. Virdhawal was given an honorary membership of the Gymkhana, the place Rujuta skilled every day.

At first, they’d steal a look or two and mutter the mushy ‘hi-hellos’ once they walked previous each other. “Then, he started training with us and we started talking,” Rujuta says. “Gradually, he offered me lifts and dropped me home after our workouts.”

Rujuta, introvert and shy; Virdhawal, unabashed and daring. She, a university lady; he, an Olympian and Asian Games medallist. “I wouldn’t ever message him first. And he’d, like, been to the Olympics, so that ‘male ego’ used to come,” Rujuta teases.

“When we started dating,” Rujuta continues, “I was in college so if I was in a lecture, I’d still message him but if the professor is looking at you, you have to keep your phone down. If I’d be two minutes late to reply, then…”

“…I’d block her for a couple of days,” Virdhawal sheepishly completes the sentence. “Looking back, I was very petty. That was a character flaw I had. But we have grown up together, matured together.”

A 12 months later, in 2017, they tied the knot. And the start of the brand new union coincided with the couple easing ties with an outdated companion – the pool.

Rujuta says she began dropping curiosity in swimming in 2014, then took a break for remaining exams in 2015, the 12 months when her coach handed away. “So I gave up just like that,” she says.

For Virdhawal, the forms was the stumbling block. He’d been posted as a tehsildar in rural Maharashtra, and, for an extended interval, lived a life in obscurity.

Virdhawal was given an honorary membership of the Gymkhana, the place Rujuta skilled every day. At first, they’d steal a look or two and mutter the mushy ‘hi-hellos’ once they walked previous each other. “Then, he started training with us and we started talking,” Rujuta says. (Express phot by Amit Chakravarty)

After lacking the Rio Olympics in 2016, he determined to return for the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and shifted his base to Bangalore, the place Rujuta joined him. While Virdhawal received again into the punishing grind of knowledgeable athlete, Rujuta accompanied him to the gymnasium and pool merely to shed some further kilos.

“At that time, I was almost 20kg heavier than what I used to be when I was swimming and wasn’t feeling good about it. So, I started going to the gym. He suggested I get into the pool to burn extra calories, which I did,” Rujuta says.

Unwittingly, she made a comeback to the pool. A 200m swimmer initially, Rujuta tagged together with Virdhawal’s brief dash exercises. “As I kept losing weight and got stronger in the gym, I started swimming faster. And before we both knew it, I was clocking time in training that was fast,” she says.

The drive to get an edge over their precise rivals within the pool was such for Virdhawal and Rujuta, even the coaching classes grew to become aggressive generally. They’d typically bicker and make the day ‘miserable’ for the opposite if one among them had a foul exercise. The candy nothings, they snicker, of two married, skilled swimmers.

“But now, we try not to carry that baggage at home,” Virdhawal says

For Rujuta, that quantity was 26.61 seconds. Since she returned to the pool, switching from 200m to 50m, Rujuta had been consumed by Shikha Tandon’s nationwide file set in 2003.

At the 2019 National Championships, she got here agonisingly shut. But then, the pandemic hit, the swimming pools had been the final sporting facility to reopen after the lockdown was lifted and simply when the actions returned to normalcy, she suffered a probably career-ending backbone damage.

“I was diagnosed with scoliosis,” Rujuta says. “I was a complete mess. It was very hard for me but he was there to encourage me every day.”

“I have had so many setbacks in my career,” Virdhawal provides. “There’s always a silver lining.”

He is aware of. After the 2020 Tokyo Olympics received postponed to 2021, Virdhawal stopped swimming ‘due to the uncertainty over whether or not the Games will occur. “I could not deal with that. It’s always been that if I am training, it has to be for something.”

But whereas one door closed, one other opened. A 12 months after the Olympics, China’s zero-Covid coverage compelled the organisers of the Hangzhou Asian Games to postpone it by one 12 months, with the rescheduled occasion set to be held from September 23 to October 8.

That gave Virdhawal a ray of hope. “The postponement gave me more time to prepare and make a comeback.”

He additionally has unfinished enterprise at Asiad. In Jakarta 5 years in the past, Virdhawal missed the rostrum in 50m freestyle by 0.01 seconds. It is perhaps a painful reminiscence however Virdhawal has lengthy moved on.

“The next day, I went shopping with Rujuta, who was with me in Jakarta,” he says. “I lost a medal but life went on.”

Perhaps, he’d have reacted in a different way earlier. But marriage and being with a companion from the identical self-discipline has made him calmer, and wiser. The competitiveness, although, stays firmly intact.

“These have been the best years of my life. Even if I wasn’t swimming, I’d be okay. From Hyderabad nationals, I am happy and very proud of her. But next time, I’ll break two records and go one-up on her,” Virdhawal laughs.

And they did rejoice their anniversary, belatedly so: A quiet dinner, indulging in a uncommon cheat meal, and the satisfaction of being India’s quickest swimming couple.