Karnataka Swimmer Manikanta Wins 8 Golds at Khelo India Tribal Games 2026

According to a press release from the KITG, the 21-year-old was the star performer at the inaugural Khelo India Tribal Games currently underway in Raipur and was aiming for a haul of nine gold medals in four days. Though he ended up with eight gold and a silver to show for his effort, the real challenge for Manikanta was to oscillate between the pool and the victory podium between his races, for which he needed to keep changing clothes while also trying to mentally prepare himself for the next race.

A breaststroke specialist, Manikanta, had decided to challenge himself by participating in all four strokes - breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and freestyle - categories and win as many gold medals as possible for his state.

"It is never easy to shift between different strokes, as it requires a different strategy for every race. Also, the time between the races was quite short. That was an added challenge here," Manikanta told SAI Media after his effort of winning six individual and two relay gold medals.

With just six races scheduled per day, Manikanta was participating in almost every alternate race on the first three days of the Khelo India Tribal Games while also attending the medal ceremony between the races at the international pool here in Raipur.

All that took a toll on him as he missed out on the 50m freestyle gold in the last race of Day 3, finishing second behind state-mate Dhoonesh M. "My abs had started to feel tight by the time I entered the water in that race, and that affected my speed. But I am happy with my overall showing as this is the first time that I was participating in so many races and that too in different strokes," said Manikanta, who was hooked to swimming thanks to his paternal uncle Manjunath, who was also a national-level swimmer.

Manikanta had won four gold medals in the Khelo India University Games in Jaipur earlier this year, winning two individual and two relay gold medals. However, he had swum only the breaststroke legs in the relay events while his individual golds came in 200m and 100m breaststroke.

In fact, Manikanta used to focus on the butterfly event in the initial years of his career but a shoulder injury in 2019 meant that his then-coach Sinjo asked him to work more on his breaststroke.

"I feel like I was destined to do breaststroke. Though I used to train mostly for Butterfly, my first National level medal back in 2016 came in a relay race in which I had swam the Breaststroke leg," said the swimmer who hails from Davangiri but now trains at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre in Bengaluru under coach Rajeev RS.

When asked whether the success in the Khelo India Tribal Games gave him the confidence to try and compete in more categories going forward, Manikanta categorically rejected the idea. "Competing in multiple events is quite demanding on the body, and that may affect my performance in my main event. I want to focus solely on breaststroke and try and make it to the Indian team for the Asian Games 2026 later this year," said the 21-year-old, who is considered the second-best swimmer in the 200m breaststroke category behind Dhanush S of Tamil Nadu.

Manikanta, who has won over 20 Khelo India medals overall and has two silver and a bronze at the senior nationals, knows that he would have to improve on his personal best to make the Asian Games qualifying mark of 2:13.03 seconds. Manikanta's personal 2:20.55 seconds. The Indian record in this event is held by Sandeep Sejwal, who clocked 2:12.02 seconds at the 2009 Asian age-group championships.

"I have been training hard for the last two months with that goal in mind, and that is why I could compete so well in these nine events here. I know getting into the Asian Games squad is quite tough, but if I continue to work hard, then I am confident that it can be possible," said Manikanta, who hopes to one day get a job in the Karnataka Police department on the basis of his swimming achievements.

- ANI