Rehan Poncha is eagerly looking ahead to the Olympics. On Saturday, Poncha broke the 22-year-old National record in the 200 metre butterfly stroke. It also helped him attain the ‘B’ qualifying mark for the Beijing Games. At the Telstra Grand Prix in Sydney, Poncha broke the record that was set by Khazan Singh during the 1986 Asian Games. Poncha stopped the clock at 2:01:40sec in 200m butterfly. “Winning was more a mind game than anything else,” said Poncha who bettered the National record in the heats by clocking 2:02:38sec. However that time wasn’t good enough to qualify. He managed to better that time in the semifinals. “Breaking the record and not qualifying would have been disappointing,” said the Graduate from the Mahaveer Jain College in Bangalore. “Stiff competition from the egged me on,” said Poncha who finished 5th in the semis and thus qualified for Beijing Olympics. He has been training with National coach Pradeep S Kumar for the past four years. He decided to stay with Pradeep rather than go abroad for high altitude training. “Long association with a coach helps in better understanding and helps iron out flaws and pin-point mistakes faster,” Poncha said.
—Nandini Kumar
