Geeta eyes a shot at gold

19-year-old Geeta Solanki walks in for practice into the Baba Gangnath temple sports complex in Munirka her head bowed low,clearly conscious about something.

19-year-old Geeta Solanki walks in for practice into the Baba Gangnath temple sports complex in Munirka her head bowed low,clearly conscious about something. An old man beckons her to come near. In spite of her refusal to accept the token for her silver medal,he stuffs a couple of thousand rupee notes into her palm loudly exclaiming “Shabash bacche,(well done child)”. Its hard at that moment to decipher what embarasses her more. The money being gifted to her in front of all her colleagues or the brilliant blue area under her eye that the Delhi boxer received during the final of 54 kg category event in the Women’s Boxing Nationals,last week in Thrissur.

Geeta was not the only girl from the Delhi team to win a medal,Kavita Goyat had won a gold while Jagriti had won a bronze. But despite losing 5-3 to Haryana’s Sonia in the final,it was Geeta who impressed the judges so much that she was named the best loser of the tournament.

The black eye though is ironic. When Geeta first started boxing at 11 years of age,her biggest fear was that she might wreck her face. “What persuaded me to continue was the thought that I could win medals. However despite competing for many years at the junior level,she failed to make a mark. “I never won anything. But at the same time I was always happy that at least my face is still safe.” But now after the “biggest win” of her career,Geeta laments her black eye. “People look at me funnily. Even Sonia apologised to me,after she saw how worse the eye had become.”

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“I have always been losing to her. I lost to her in the Federation Cup last month by 8-0 and then last year in the Nationals by RSC. I worked extra hard on my technique this past month and the results have shown. In the final I was on equal points till the last round before she got ahead.”

With a silver medal at the National level,the next step for her is to win the event outright. “After that I hope to be able to compete in the Olympics. But for the moment I want to beat Soniya and give her a black eye of her own,” she quips.

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