Patil twins, Aarti and Jyoti, are making a splash at the KIUG
Bajirao Patil, now serving as a constable in Mumbai police, harboured aspirations of representing India in aquatics at the Olympics when he was a youngster. His ambition, though, did not materialise. Years later, however, his daughters — identical twins — Aarti and Jyoti, are literally making a splash in the pool at the ongoing Khelo India University Games (KIUG) in Bengaluru.
Aarti and Jyoti began the Games emphatically, winning four medals between them. While Aarti clinched a gold and a silver in the 200m breaststroke and the 50m breaststroke events respectively, Jyoti finished a close second in the 200m breaststroke event but pipped her twin sister to the gold in the 50m breaststroke
event. Aarti, who clocked 34.95 seconds in the 50m breaststroke event, in fact, eclipsed her previous record of 36.26 seconds set in the 2019 edition of the KIUG.
They maybe the best of friends off the pool, but neither gives an inch when they are competing. Their performances in the KIUG is a fair indication of how seriously they take their sport.
The Patil sisters were encouraged to take up swimming at very early age. “I believe we were just a yearold when we first took a dip in the pool,” recalled Jyoti, who was born just two minutes apart from her older sister Aarti.
The twins, who are pursuing a Political Science degree from Dadar’s Kirti college, swam the distance between Gateway of India and Alibaug in record time at the age of four.
Such was their commitment to the sport that over the years, the duo has over 60 national medals between them to boast off.
But their father always taught them the value of being humble and never let success get the better of them. “To tell you the truth, we have never been trained to aim for medals or to win races,” Aarti said and added: “The idea is to put in your best every day.”