Special swim

He is the only Indian swimmer ever to set four new all time Best Indian Performances in a single meet. At the 61st LIC senior national aquatic championship at Panaji, Goa in September 2007, competing against the country’s best swimmers, Bangalore’s Rehan Poncha improved upon his own national records in three events; in the fourth — the 200 m backstroke — Poncha broke Wilson Cherian’s 21-year-old record. "This was a very special swim for me as Cherian is considered to be the best backstroker India has ever seen. Breaking his record was the best part of the meet for me, apart from winning the overall trophy (best male swimmer) in senior nationals which came after seven years of trying,” Poncha said to Parsiana. Poncha’s tally of medals was four individual golds (with four national records in the five events he swam), one silver, two relay golds (with two national records for the Karnataka team) and one relay silver!

Rehan Poncha (left): Four Best Indian performances at swimming nationals; Kaikhusru Irani guns for gold

Commenting on 21-year-old Pon­cha’s performance under the headline "Rehan sinks another national mark,” The Hindu, September 21, 2007 wrote: "He swam with supreme confidence and sustained the momentum right through the race [the tough 400 m individual medley (IM)], pulling ahead of the field with every lap.” The next day’s edition stated: "Setting records seems to have become a habit… the race of the day was Rehan’s splendid charge in the 400 m freestyle.”

A few days later Poncha participated in the Asian Indoor Games at Macau, China. "I just missed a medal but my best positions were fourth and fifth in the 100 m backstroke and the 200 m IM. I swam five events in all and made it to the top eight in three of them. Considering this was an open Asian meet, I am very happy with my performance and I clocked very fast times,” he stated. "I am now in off-season training and will be targeting a meet in February/March next year to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.”