The hurt and the glory

There was a time when whatever she touched turned to gold, be it in the Asian Games, the Asian Track and Field Meet or the domestic championships.

Then came a brief spell of setbacks: the Payyoli Express, who had spent her best years sweating it out to keep the tricolour flying in various international arenas, was even written off as a `goods train’ by the so-called experts, when she stumbled at the first block on her comeback trail.

Many an eyebrow was raised when Usha announced her comeback in June 1994, ending a three-year spellof hibernation. Marriage, a son and many kilograms on her lithe frame later, the Asian track queen of the ’80s brushed away the cobwebs that had settled on her image and her spikes to embark on a long journey back to the sports field.

Many found it hard to believe that she could actually do it. Some dismissed it as a silly joke. Several Usha fans were pained over the prospect that the image of their golden girl would now be tarnished by a string of poor performances.

For Usha, it was an emotional roller-coaster ride, with its share of dreams, disappointments and mental anguish. “My toughest battle was not on the track, but off it,” she had said of her second coming. There were times when she failed to check her tears on the face of barbed remarks. There were moments when she thought that enough was enough and that she would hang up her spikes once again.

The first real blow came when O.M. Nambiar, the coach who had shaped her career, turned down her request to train her for the Asian Track and FieldMeet at Manila. Nambiar, who had by then written off his former ward, was more keen on producing `new Ushas’ out of his younger trainees.

“It was a rude shock for Usha,” recalls V. Sreenivasan, Usha’s husband who was the guiding force behind her determined comeback. “Sensitive by nature, she wept for hours and even refused to take food for days.”

Equally hurtful was the insulting attitude of her younger opponents, who were basking in the glory of their new-found status as Usha-beaters. One of them even chortled: “I will chase Usha wherever she goes and make her bite the dust at least a hundred times.” Ironically, each one of these promising stars had grown up admiring Usha, both as an athlete and as a person.

Usha met with one of the most painful experiences of her career at the Lucknow Circuit Meet in ’95. Despite her repeated pleas, not one of the junior athletes came forward to race with her in an event short of the required number of competitors.

There is another incident Usha would like toforget. It happened at the closing ceremony of the South Asian Federation Games at Chennai in 1995. Usha, the captain of Indian team, was denied the opportunity to hold the National tricolour in the marchpast. “Don’t humiliate me before the people who love me,” she had pleaded with the organisers. But all her requests fell on deaf ears.

This was not all. Usha had to put up with several caustic comments from sports officials as well. One of them came from a senior national athletics coach: “Usha wants to train at this age? Funny indeed. It’s better for her to seek a maid’s job.” Even an apology from the coach was not enough to heal that wound.

Also remember the cold reception India’s Golden Girl received at the New Delhi airport on her return from the Los Angeles Olympics where she missed the bronze by a whisker? But that was nothing compared to the effigy-burning spree in Kerala, after Usha pulled out of the 1988 Olympics owing to muscular pain.

There were many painful instances of this kind. Ushasurvived them all in her fight back to the top. Each step on this chartered course was a well-planned and concerted one. After a shaky start in the circuit meets at Bangalore, the former track queen struck form in the Federation Cup at Pune (1997), where she swept gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m. The rest, as they say, is history.

Watching his mother perform these miracles is little Vignesh Ujjal, now in the first standard. He has started running too, and recently brought home a trophy in the 50m race organised at his school much to the delight of his mother.

But what really was behind Usha’s decision to come back? Was it fuelled merely by the confidence that she can still dominate the Asian track? Was that her only refuge from the wave of hostility from the Indian public? Or was she simply gunning for more money and fame?

“No, it was not money or fame that lured Usha back to the track. She had enough of both,” says Sreenivasan, a former Central Industrial Security Force Inspector. “Ushaalways believed that she had the calibre to reach international standards. Unfortunately, she could not go beyond the Asian level, mainly because of stress factors. She has been competing in five to six events in every meet, keeping national prestige in mind. It proved to be too much. After becoming a mother, she wanted to return to the track and prove her class by concentrating on a single event. And she was confident of her chances too.”

Usha’s plans did not materialise in the manner she thought they would. She ended up competing in four events at the recent Asian Track and Field Meet at Fukuoka, Japan, only because the nation’s hopes rested on her. However, she kept her record of winning medals in every event she had participated in, by clinching one gold, one silver and two bronze at Fukuoka.

The next stop for the Payyoli Express is Bangkok, where she aims to clinch an Asian Games gold for the country. It is not just her physique but her indomitable spirit that has kept this golden dream alive.