VK Vismaya
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Training for the Asiad gold
Hidden somewhere in Indian athletics’ best-ever Asian Games showing since 1951, is an explosive final lap by a little-known 22-year-old girl that could perhaps be the most heartening return of the Jakarta-Palembang event. To think, VK Vismaya had just four months of training under coach Galina Bukharina before she anchored the 4x400m relay gold.
Like others in the stadium, Hima Das, M R Poovamma and Saritaben Gayakwad, the members of the Indian quartet, too, watched Vismaya’s furious burst, forgetting for a moment that it was her first senior competition. Vismaya’s rise to the top in the 4x400m relay is quite amazing. Before Jakarta, she had never participated in a senior competition, even at the district level. She hasn’t competed at the Nationals, Federation Cup in Patiala or Interstate Guwahati meet and wasn’t part of the national camp until April this year.
So, how did the turnaround happen? Vismaya says it was only after joining the camp under Bukharina at the NIS Patiala that not only her timing improved, but she also managed to win the gold with four months of training. But before Vismaya was invited to the Patiala camp, it was a scouting team from the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) which first noticed her talent at the Interuniversity meet in Vijayawada in November last where she recorded an impressive timing of 53.63s in the 400m to win silver.
“At the Coimbatore junior nationals in 2016, I won the gold medal in 200m with a timing of 23.90s. My effort saw me break the 25-year-old record in 200m. At the same meet, competing in the 400m hurdles, I won an individual bronze. Sadly, nobody recognised my efforts in Kerala athletics and I wasn’t picked for the senior team,” Vismaya told TOI on Tuesday.
“After the Coimbatore meet, I suffered from glute muscle pain which took me away from the track for almost a year. I returned from injury at the Vijayawada meet where I won the silver. It was only after my performance that I was straightaway picked for the senior team,” she added.
Chorus grows to increase Swapna’s cash award
India’s chief athletics coach Bahadur Singh has demanded the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to increase the prize money for the Asiad gold medal winner Swapna Barman. Mamata had announced Rs. 10 lakh and a state government job for Swapna. “These 10-15 lakhs are nothing in today’s world, but it does motivate the athletes. Rs. 10 lakh is nothing compared to what Swapna has done in Jakarta,” he said.
