Mr Sunil Aptekar – Mr India & Eklavya Awardee

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Our Mr Sunil Narayan Aptekar an international body builder and Eklavya awardee was born on 11^th April 1965 to Shri Narayan Aptekar and Smt Sulabha ptekar. He completed his schooling from Beynon Smith and external graduation from GSS College Belgaum. An incident changed Sunil’s life when he applied in air force and was disqualified in the selection process. This incident led him to work hard and set a benchmark in body building. He had all the signs and traits of a world class champions who accept challenges and transform it into success. Parents, family and friends played a crucial role in the development of Sunil’s career. “My parents were extremely supportive and I could never have made it in sports without their backup” says Sunil.

Journey of Sunil’s body building began with his father’s dream to see him as a successful body builder. His family supports him in his work especially his life partner Sneha Aptekar is his anchor.

He commenced his career participating in state level competitions held at Mangalore in 1987 and secured 3^rd place. In the same year he represented Karnataka at national level body building competition held at Cochin and secured 2^nd place. He worked as a trainer for Corporation Gymnasium, Vijay Akhada and Manikbagh Gymnasium. Champions are known for their hard work and dedication and this was true in case of Sunil. He used to work out 3-4 hours in the morning and evening with cardio exercise, meditation and posing practices. He also maintained a proper diet, as food is an important aspect in the metabolism and maintenance of the body.

During this tenure he also trained many budding talents who have won national and state level body building championships namely, Mr Amar Aptekar, Mr Umesh Aptekar, Mr Ranjit Killekar and Mr Amit Jade.

“Never compete with your competitors instead compete with yourself you will excel “this is what Sunil followed in his life. He learnt many strategies and tactics from his competitors. He upgraded himself by reading books on body building and sports medicine (Encyclopedia of body building and pumping iron cassettes covered on Arnold during the phase of his competitions, health magazine, sports magazine books etc)

Sunil has won many prizes and accolades. In his international career he won Bronze in Sr Asian Championship held at Seoul (South Korea), received 7^th and 10^th place in Sr Asian Championship held at Pusan (South Korea) and Chongguing (South Korea) respectively. He also participated in 2^nd Common Wealth held at Kolkatta India.

At national level he participated in 10 Mr India (Sr National) competitions and won 3 gold medals in Darjiling, Cochin and Chandigad, 2 silver medals in Kolkata and Bhavanagar, stood 2 times 4^th in Belgaum and Jalandhar and 3 times 5^th in Shilong (2 times) and Amaravati.

He also took part in many national leval classis competitions and won silver in Pathare Cup Classis (Mumbai), Maharana Pratap Shree (Jodhpur), IGF (Delhi), Akbar Travell Classis (Ponnani), stood 4^th in 3^rd JCT Classis (Delhi), 6^th in Sahyadri Shree (Mumbai), 10^th in 1^st and 2^nd JCT Classis held at Delhi.

He has participated in 14 inter railway competitions conducted in various places like Madras, Vijayvada, Kagrapur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Trichur with 7 gold, 5 silver and 2 times 4^th place. Also bagged gold in Mr South India 4 times held at Palakkad, Trissur, Mangalore and Hyderabad respectively.

This pattern also continued in the state level classic competition wherein he was three times champion for Belgaum Hercules held at Belgaum, 2 times champion for PTM Shree (Kolhapur), champion for Shahu Shree (Kagal) and Sangali Shree (Sangali), Gold for Karnataka Kumar (Belgaum), Silver for Karnataka Shree (Bangalore) and Maharashtra Shree (Pune), Bronze for Karnataka Kishor (Mangalore). He was also falicitated for his work in body building by Karnataka University.

In the year 1999 he was honoured with Ekalavya Award at the hands of Chief Minister S M Krishna. Same year he was awarded as a best sportsman of the year. It was first time in the history of Karnataka Sunil bagged Bronze medal at the 33^rd international Asian body building competition conducted at Seoul (South Korea) and he secured 3 times gold medal at national level body building competition.

He has been also honored by the following awards

Rail Khel Shree – Railway Board Delhi

Arihant Award – Jain Yuva Group Nippani

Sangati Sports Club – Sangati Sahitya Academy

Pride of Belgaum – Belgaum distrct body builders association

Presently Sunil conducts seminars and guides the budding body builders. Sunil Aptekar has made Belagavi proud, he is a gem and we must preserve this gem in the crown of Belagavi city with pride.

Article by – Amit Jade