The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Shobha struggling to get back on track

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Shobha struggling to get back on track

V.V. Subrahmanyam

"I am struggling to regain confidence and so I am looking for moral support from my Russian coach Alexander."

HYDERABAD: The athlete, whose performance drew a standing ovation during the Athens Olympics, is now struggling to get back onto the track. Heptathlete J.J. Shobha says she cannot compete for the next six months and that may be bad news for Indian athletics.

Shobha, who won many hearts in Athens for her grit and determination in completing the heptathlon despite a torn ligament, said that she is still unable to begin full-length training sessions due to the injury.

In an exclusive chat with The Hindu on Tuesday after arriving in Hyderabad from Patiala, Shobha said that though she was better, she was not confident of going through a demanding regimen. "I am struggling to regain confidence and so I am looking for moral support from my Russian coach Alexander," she said. "At Patiala, the focus was largely on off-season training. I joined the national camp to regain my confidence sooner. Things would have drifted apart if I were to confine myself to the Railway Grounds here," said Shobha.

"The next 12 months can be the most crucial ones. After the acclamation I received at Athens, I am looking for an early return to the track," she confessed. "This is the reason why I am contemplating hiring a foreign masseur to help me in recovering," Shobha said.

The Afro-Asian Games gold medallist hoped that she would be fit for the Doha Asian Games and then would prepare a long-term plan for the Beijing Olympics.

According to Mr. Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of AAFI, Shobha could be India's main medal hope in Doha and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Shobha called upon Ms. Sumita Dawra, VC & MD of SAAP, along with the APAA secretary, Prof. K. Ranga Rao, to hand over a representation seeking financial help for her early return to the sport. Shobha has requested an annual package of about Rs. 10 lakhs which can pay for a masseur (who may charge about $1,300 per month), diet allowance, complete set of kits, internal travel by air and also if necessary call the Russian coach to Hyderabad when the national camp is off.

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