Shivani Kataria

At an age when most girl children fill up their days with fun, fashion and friends, Shivani Kataria (13) is focused upon swimming, study and more swimming. She begins her day early morning in the swimming pool and ends it late in the evening, the same way.

Inspired by father Harbir, an agric-ulturist based in Gurgaon, Shivani began swimming when she was eight, with her father as coach. Since then this class VII student of DAV School, Gurgaon, has transformed into the reigning CBSE schools national swimming champion in the Under-14 category with gold medals in four events — 200 metres freestyle; 200 m individual medley, 50 m and 100 m freestyle — all bagged during the CBSE Inter-school Sports and Games Comp-etition 2010-11, held in Jaipur late last year.
Since 2008, Shivani has been training under the expert tutelage of Sandeep Tokas, the well-known national-level swimming champion-turned-coach, and has set her eyes on representing India in the 2016 London Olympics. But meanwhile she’s shown impressive progress after debuting in the Junior National Aquatic Championships in Goa in 2008, winning the best female swimmer title at the 22nd Haryana State Games held at Rai, Sonepat, and the 50 m and 100 m freestyle gold medals at the National School Games (U-14) held at Kolkata in October 2009.

Moreover at the 37th Junior National Aquatic Championship held in Bangalore last July, Shivani struck gold in the 50 m freestyle event and competed for the first time in the women’s 200 m freestyle race, winning the silver, to become the first female swimmer from Haryana to win a medal in a women’s swimming event.

“My favourite event is the 50 m freestyle on which I intend to focus in the coming years. I am well aware that I need to improve my timings — which is 28 seconds for 50 m, 1.03 minutes for 100 m and 2.15 minutes for 200 m. Though good by national standards, these timings are way behind the world records of 25 seconds, 56 seconds and 2.09 minutes respectively,” says this teenager with a mature head on her shoulders.

No laggard in the classroom either, Shivani successfully balances her rigorous pool training regimen with academics and calculatedly opted out of the 34th National Games at Ranchi this year to train for the ISF World Schools’ Games, scheduled to be held in Poland later this year.

“It is entirely possible to balance academics with intensive sports training and competitive swimming. It requires mental strength and discipline. These qualities which if developed in school will definitely help one succeed in business and the professions. Therefore making time for sports training creates a win-win situation for students,” advises Shivani.

Way to go, girl!

Payal Mahajan (Gurgaon)

Arnav Dhivare

Only five years of age, Arnav Dhivare, a class I student of Apeejay School, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, is too young to absorb the implications of winning an international arts competition, but his parents Shrikant Divare, assistant commissioner of police, Navi Mumbai and Sanika, a homemaker, are understandably over the moon about their son’s achievement.

Arnav has bagged first prize in the Group A (age two-seven) category of the Global Annual Children and Youth Art Show 2011, organised by Tell Us Art, a Sweden-based NGO. The art show was held in India from March 1-April 14, as part of the NGO’s ‘Keep our planet alive’ programme, to stimulate children to showcase their ideas to protect Planet Earth through drawings and paintings.

The 100 best thematic works of art from children under 18 years worldwide were shortlisted and ranked by ten artist members of Tell Us Art. The results were announced on March 21 at New Delhi’s India Habitat Centre, and bagged Arnav his first gold medal and a certificate proclaiming him perhaps the world’s youngest eco-warrior.

“When we agreed at the behest of the school authorities to persuade Arnav to enter the competition we thought it was a national art competition. It was only when we got the news that Arnav had won that we realised it was an international competition,” says Sanika.

But this young prodigy’s interests are not restricted to sedentary activ-ities. Roller skating is his forte and he has won several awards in the sport, including a silver medal in the Speed-track Roller Skating Championship held in 2009 at the Vazirani National Sports Academy, Nerul. He also represented Team Kharghar Skaters in the Delhi Public School Inter-school Roller Skating Championship 2009. Simultaneously he is attending karate classes at the International Goju Ryu Karate Do Organisation, Kharghar, having put art, dance and music classes behind him. “We are letting him experience different activities so he can discover where his genuine interest lies,” explains Sanika.

Comments Indu Mathur, principal of Apeejay School, Kharghar: “Arnav is another M.F. Hussain in the making. We intend to pay special attention to developing his exceptional talent.”

Quite obviously a tiny tot in a big hurry to excel.

Manas Shrivastava (Mumbai)