Mon, Nov 22 10 08:18 PM
Sangita Bakaya Lucknow, Nov 22 (PTI) Golden girl Sudha Singh, who won the steeplechase event in the ongoing Asian Games in Guangzhou, used to get frightened at the very sight of hurdles when she took to the track and field as a young girl some eight years ago, her coach said today. "When she started training, Sudha had this fear for hurdles in the track and field event and had to work hard to overcome them mentally," Vimla Singh, her coach at the local K D Singh Babu Girls hostel where she got her elementary training, told PTI here. Hailing from nearby Rae Bareli, Sudha was brought here in 2002 but she had to be initially tutored psychologically for overcoming her fear of hurdles which she had to cross while competing for steeplechase event, Vimla said. "It took a lot of prodding and motivation from her coaches here to mentally prepare her for the different events but once she started off there had been no looking back," Vimla said. Describing Sudha as a "god gifted" athlete who clinched the gold in her very first foray in the Asian Games, Vimla said that hers is the story of sheer gut and determination triumphing over the fears to make a mark at the international level. Elated over Sudha''s success, Vimla hopes that she could repeat her performance in the Asian Games in the London Olympics in 2012. After joining the Babu stadium hostel in 2002, Sudha took part in under 16 events in 2005 and went on to win the second spot in Chennai in open cross country event. In the junior Asian Championships in China the same year, she took the ninth spot and from there she has been just marching ahead, leaving the hostel once the Railways offered her a job. Vimla said that after leaving the Lucknow hostel she trained under Renu Kohli of SAI in Delhi but later shifted to Bangaluru. Vimla said that with more facilities in the Uttar Pradesh hostels, more athletes of Sudha''s calibre can be prepared who can win laurels for the country.
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