Udaipur: Jharna Kumawat of Udaipur, the city of lakes in Rajasthan, has brought laurels to the country. Kumawat successfully swam across the English Channel in spite of bad weather.
Jharna, who works as a contact officer for the National Health Service in England, is also a pro open water swimmer. Earlier this month, she managed to cross the English Channel with her five-member relay team. She was supposed to cross the Channel on July 29 but due to continuous bad weather the date was extended. After this, August 3 was fixed for the feat.
According to Jharna, the 33 km sea route from the middle of the English Channel to France was very risky. Her relay team, however, successfully traversed through in 14 hours and 40 minutes. Apart from Jharna, the team had swimmers from Brazil, Kenya and other countries accompanying her. She covered a distance of four and a half km in 1 hour 15 minutes when the weather was a bit favourable in the beginning.
After that, she returned to the boat. Being the number five swimmer in the team, her turn came again after 7 hours, but by then the sea had turned rough. The high waves of the sea took a very severe test of Jharna's stamina. If she tried to move forward, the waves would throw her back again. Besides, the water was very cold. Jharna also felt nauseous at times due to the salt water. It was becoming difficult to see anything in the dark.
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She, however, managed to swim for 1 hour and 15 minutes in those challenging waves. Exhausted, Jharna made her way swimming continuously through the high waves. Jharna was the only Indian international open water swimmer in this year's relay race. Her mother, social worker Sushma Kumawat, said that it was a very happy occasion for her to be selected by the English Channel Federation for the relay team.
Jharna has been participating in open-water swimming competitions for the last three years. She has been living in England for the last 12 years. She also participated in the London Swimming Marathon last year. The purpose of the relay race is to help the needy,
The English Channel Relay was organized by an English charity called Swimtyaka. Jharna swam for the Swimatayka Peru team. This relay was organized to raise funds for charity and to create awareness. Jharna is suffering from type-1 diabetes however the same has not stopped her from pursuing her passion.
