Mumbai swimmer Kenisha Gupta,18, who won gold medals in 50m freestyle, 100m and 200m freestyle, is glad to contribute the three medals to a tally of 29 (18 gold, seven silver and four bronze medals) at the Uzbekistan Open Championship recently. Talking to mid-day.com, Gupta, who is part of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), spoke about how the COVID-19 lockdown affected her training, her aims and how it felt good to participate in her first international event after almost a year in lockdown.

In the 50m freestyle event, she swam her course in 26.61 seconds in the final race–0.25 seconds faster than second-placed Natalya Kritinina of Uzbekistan. Gupta, who trains under Dronacharya award-winning coach Nihar Ameen, was 0.24 seconds behind Shikha Tandon’s national record of 26.37 seconds set at the Malaysian Open in 2008. Earlier, Gupta won the women’s 100m freestyle event with a national record timing of 57.42 seconds and the 200m, clocking 2:06.66 seconds—also her personal best. She upset Rio Olympian Shivani Kataria in both 100m and 200m to clinch gold.