Running on Gold

The year: 1990. The occasion: The annual sports meet of Manormukh Uttarpara J V School, Madhyamgram village, Beloria district, Tripura. Amon...

The year: 1990. The occasion: The annual sports meet of Manormukh Uttarpara J V School, Madhyamgram village, Beloria district, Tripura. Among the curious villagers and participants8217; relatives were a few officials from the Sports Authority of India. As a 12-year-old student of class V flew down the track for the races, a routine talent hunt suddenly took a different hue. The officials had spotted a could-be star.

WHAT they could not have spotted was the girl8217;s hunger for success, for a life beyond penury and frustration. Till that sports day, Saraswati Saha, daughter of a poor farmer, ran for pleasure. 8216;8216;But when I heard that the SAI people would choose the best and then take care of him/her, I ran for my life,8217;8217; says Saha, now 23 and the proud winner of a gold in the 200-m at the Busan Asiad.

From Tripura, the SAI officials brought her to West Bengal, admitted her to Krishnanagar Government Girls8217; School in Nadia, and initiated her training under coach Imamul Haque. 8216;8216;I had left my nightmare days behind,8217;8217; says Saha. 8216;8216;Now I am living my dream.8217;8217;

Recounting her childhood, Saha says, 8216;8216;We were six sisters and a brother, and it was difficult for our father to organise two square meals a day for us. But I was always interested in sports and always took part in every meet organised in the village. The SAI officials8217; visit was my one chance, and I grabbed it with both hands.8217;8217;

The same spirit shone through at the recently concluded Asiad. Saha finished fifth in the 100-m, but refused to let that deter her. In the 200-m event, she lagged behind in the third place for the first 100 meters, and then blasted off to finish first. This time, she was proving a point: that the SAI spotters had not made a mistake, that she was the best in Asia in the event.

8216;8216;I made a false start in the 100-m, that8217;s why I could not do well. I took the 200-m as a chance to prove that I was not mediocre,8217;8217; says the golden girl, confidence written all over her face.

Saha attributes much of her success to her coach-cum-husband Amit Saha, an respected athlete in his own right. 8216;8216;We met in 1994, at the Bhopal junior inter-state athletics meet, and got married a few years later. I couldn8217;t have done much without him. Amit is my moral support, my inspiration,8217;8217; says Saha, who has won several medals at national and international meets.

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Her parents and the family she left behind in Tripura are also on her mind. 8216;8216;I plan to visit them soon. I have to ensure their condition improves. After all, they didn8217;t hesitate to let me go when I got the SAI offer,8217;8217; she says.

Having come up the hard way, Saha refuses to rest on her laurels. She is already eyeing the Afro-Asian Games next year and the 2004 Athens Olympics. 8216;8216;My ultimate dream is an Olympics medal,8217;8217; says the diminutive girl, who has already started practising at the sports club in Bandel, a Kolkata suburb where she resides.

Saha and her husband both work for the railways, and both are extremely bitter about the state government8217;s non-existent role in sports. 8216;8216;Do you know why Kerala excels in athletics?8217;8217; asks Amit. 8216;8216;They give all the support, moral and financial, to their stars. A couple of Kerala ministers spent the whole day at Anju George and Beenamol8217;s houses the day they returned home from Busan. Here, nobody cares.8217;8217;