Swimming Mohammed Yaqoob Saleem has in a few years emerged as one of the brightest stars in the Karnataka swimming fraternity

One of Hazibul Macci’s first acts on moving to Bangalore in 2004, from K.R. Puram in Hassan District, was to take his grandson to the swimming pool. The kid had shown a tremendous liking for playing in water and also Macci felt, a healthy distraction would keep him away from bad company in the neighbourhood. First taking him to public sessions at Jayanagar’s P.M. Swimming Centre on holidays, and then enrolling him in a beginner’s course there, Macci was satisfied that the boy would remain sufficiently active. He scarcely envisioned, though, that in a few years’ time Mohammed Yaqoob Saleem would grow to become one of Karnataka’s leading young swimmers.

Bags of medals and several individual championships later, Yaqoob admits in his early days“was only playing here.” Under then coach Rohit Das, Yaqoob travelled to Neyveli for his first significant competition, a non-medallist short course meet in 2006. “I won a bronze there. It was then that I started concentrating.”

Still nervous of the big stage, Yaqoob entered his first State meet a year later and finished with a gold in the 100m freestyle. “I had no clue,” the 14-year-old recalls. “I just swam and finished first. It assured me that I had the ability.” In the years since, he has won State Sub-Junior individual championships (Groups III and IV) and National silver and bronze medals. The apogee came in 2010, when he won a gold at the Nationals, in the 200m freestyle in Bangalore, raucously cheered on by his family.

“That was his big breakthrough,” feels John Christopher, his current coach at PMSC, who that day was seen on the pool deck animatedly urging his ward towards the finish. “It was reward for his commitment. He’s extremely serious about his swimming.” The day begins at 5 a.m. for Yaqoob, his morning session in the pool lasting two hours and after school, there are three further hours of training. “I cannot recall him missing a single session, citing illness or a friend’s birthday or a function,” says Christopher. Yaqoob admits that it is tiring. “I try to catch some sleep after school. When I go home from the pool in the evening, it’s almost 9. I just finish my homework and go to bed.”

Last year, he graduated to the Junior category (Group II), doubting initially that he would be able to handle the step up. “There were older swimmers in my group. I wasn’t entirely confident.” He needn’t have worried. At the State championships, five golds and yet another individual championship came his way.

Being a Junior also meant he could compete in middle and long distance events (400, 800, and 1500m races are not open to Sub-Juniors), something he had been training for, for some time. At the Junior National meet in Bhopal last year, his first, he finished with silvers in all three aforementioned events. “I felt his strength was his heart-rate,” says Christopher. “So I thought he would make a good endurance swimmer.” There was also a gold in the 4x100m medley relay but at the 2012 Junior Nationals, Yaqoob is aiming for a bigger prize — the individual championship. “If I work hard, I can,” he says.

Christopher is convinced that it is a reasonable target. “I definitely don’t want to weigh him down with unreasonable expectations. Nobody is saying he has to win everything tomorrow morning. He’s young and he’s got a long way to go. He has to enjoy swimming.”

Yaqoob’s father Ghouse Mohiddin, a Section Officer at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University, admits that he hadn’t foreseen such progress. “I wouldn’t say I’m completely surprised — because he has worked so hard to get here.In the beginning I didn’t expect that he would become this good. His grandfather only brought him here to keep him occupied.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Shreedutta Chidananda / March 15th, 2015