Skating prodigy chosen for national award

Sirjana has her parents to thank for this,for they never stopped her from playing the accident-prone sport. However,she was admitted in the emergency ward after suffering a serious accident during a practice session at the DC Model School,where she practices for two hours everyday under coach Chander Singhal. “That accident was life threatening and she had to be put under intensive care in the emergency ward. We did not want her to continue with skating; but two days after she was discharged,she came to us and insisted on continuing with her practice. We tried to persuade her to leave the sport but she was adamant and would not give in. We finally had to agree,” recalled her father Jaswinder Singh Dhaliwal,an employee at the Animal Husbandry department in Chandigarh.

Apart from that,her career had always seen highs and lows that began when she won two gold medals in the All- India Dikshant Roller Skating Championship in 2005. More medals followed and soon she established her credentials as one of the most talented skaters of the region,something her 127 medals proudly speak about. A sporting career full of crest and troughs,Sirjana had to take a sabbatical from the sport for a year due to a recurring illness. “During that time,too,I convinced my parents to let me take part in a few tournaments,but the results were disheartening. It seemed I could not win anything more than bronze and those were definitely hard times for me. But improvement in my health also showed in the results and I was once again back to winning ways. My performance at the just concluded All-India Invitational Roller Skating Championship held at Uttarakhand has been my best yet. I won five golds and a silver medal,” Sirjana,who dreams of performing at the Olympics one day,shared.