PATHETIC STORY OF A LEGENDARY ATHLETTE

Pathetic story of a legendary athlete

“Unable to bear the acute hunger, I had to eat mud and my mother silently watched the horror with tears rolling down her eyes” Legendary athlete OP Jaisha told during the course of an interview with a Journalist. She belonged to a very poor family and her father was a daily wage earner. She is the fourth daughter of her parents.  They were able to survive with the small earnings of her father. Her father met with a Bus accident, while going for work and was bed ridden.  There after her mother had to suffer untold miseries, hardships, trials and tribulations. Family income was totally dependent on a cow which was insufficient for the treatment of her husband and two square meals for the children. Being the youngest child, Jaisha was lucky to get some “Kanji vellam” (Rice boiled with lot of water), while her sisters slept empty stomach on many days.

Fighting against all these odds, she became a top class athlete. Her dedication, devotion and determination can be gauged from the fact that with just 3 months training she participated in Mumbai Marathon and not only won the race in 2:37:29 but also broke the 20 year old record on her debut. In the recently concluded National Games, she won gold in 10000 Meters in a record time of 33 Minutes and 8.55 seconds. She finished far ahead of her competitors and even the second placed athlete was more than one lap behind her. She also won the 5000 meters race comfortably. Jaisha won several medals at National/ International competitions including Asian Games, Asian Athletic Championship and Commonwealth Games. She is a golden girl with nerves of steel. Her performance is unparalled, incredible, unprecedented and amazing. She is our best bet for an Olympic Medal as she has the potential to improve tremendously.

Notwithstanding all her superlative performance, she could not find a sponsor despite knocking several doors. While we eulogies some sports persons, treat them as demy gods, shower them with awards, rewards, medals, money etc, it is unfortunate that a highly talented athletic prodigy could not get a sponsor. She is arguably the best athlete India has produced after P T Usha. Legends are born once in a blue moon and we should not allow slipping this opportunity. History will not forgive us for this lapse. There is not an iota of doubt that given the best training, best diet and much needed international exposure, she will make her career best performance in the future sports meets and take the country to the pinnacles of glory.

Let us fervently hope that she will soon get a sponsor to fulfill the great Indian dream of winning an athletic medal at the Olympics which was narrowly missed by Milkha Singh and P T Usha.