Adventure – Sports Swimming 8th Annual Lake Travis Relay

Meenakshi Pahuja grabs Lake Travis swimming relay limelight. She was the only individual who attempted and completed the 12-mile open-water swim. The field of participating teams at the Lake Travis swimming relay in Austin, USA, last week included as big a name as cycling legend Lance Armstrong, but it was Delhi girl Meenakshi Pahuja who grabbed the limelight. Armstrong’s ‘SwimStrong’ team won the relay competition comprising about 15 sixman teams, but Meenakshi became the only individual to attempt and complete the herculean 12-mile open-water swim. Meenakshi braved winds that varied between five and 20 miles per hour and extremely choppy water to become the first Indian to complete the solo event with a time of seven hours, 10 minutes and 24 seconds, on a day that the organisers, American Swimming Association, called “perhaps the most challenging day in this event’s eight-year history”. The 6-person, 12 mile open water swimming relay race began in the water behind the 9 mile marker in the front of lakeside Carlos’n Charlie’s restaurant at Emerald Point on Lake Travis.