Mumbai twins setting pool on fire at Khelo India University Games
MUMBAI: Twins are usually each other’s best friends – more so if they are identical. Mumbai’s Jyoti and Aarti Patil too are inseparable—they hang out together, pull pranks on each other and even enjoy the same movies. The Mumbai University students are budding swimmers and practice together.
However, they turn into fierce rivals when competing in events.
The twins are setting the swimming pool on fire at the Khelo India University Games 2020 in Bhubaneswar.
On the opening day of the KIUG swimming events on Sunday, the Patil twins grabbed four medals between them, and even ended up together on the podium in the 200m breaststroke—jyoti winning gold and Aarti the bronze. The duo have claimed seven medals in all thus far.
Jyoti has got a head-start over Aarti as far as Khelo India Games go. She participated in the second edition in Pune and won gold in 200m breaststroke and silver in the 100m.
The twins, TYBA students at Ramnarain Ruia College, were initiated into swimming even before they had started walking.
Their father, Bajirao Patil, a former national-level swimmer who once swam the Greek Seas for 13 hours at a stretch, had to give up his career and join Mumbai Police to support his family. Bajirao, currently posted as havildar at Nirmal Nagar Police Station in Bandra (E), thrusted the mantle on his twin daughters.
“I believe we were just one year then (when started swimming),” Jyoti told the KIUG official media partners. “At the age of four, we swam from the Gateway of India to Alibaug, setting a record for the fastest time by twins of that age in the process.”
They have continued to make waves. Between them the twins have bagged over a hundred medals in district, state and national level events. “To tell you the truth, we have never been coached to aim for medals or to win races,” says Aarti. “The idea is to put in your best every day and let success take care of itself.”
After a dominant show so far, they will try to add more medals to the kitty, when they take to the pool at Bhubaneswar for their next event on Tuesday -- the 4x100 medley relay.