Karnataka   

The road to recognition was not smooth

DETERMINED: N. Geetha with her Ekalavya Award.

Chitradurga: The 24-year-old power-lifter, N. Geetha, is the first woman from Chitradurga to have received the Ekalavya Award, which is given for outstanding performance in the field of sports.

However, the road to recognition was not an easy one for Geetha as Chitradurga hardly offers conducive atmosphere for the growth of sports.

Coming from a family of sportspersons, Geetha received initial encouragement and support from her elder brother who has represented the State in various events in power-lifting. Having lost her father when she was six, she was brought up by her brothers and five sisters.

Fascinated by the achievements of her brother, Geetha decided to try her hand in the field of power-lifting. “I began practising when I was in eighth standard. Though my brother always lent me a helping hand, it was the efforts of my coach Rakesh Kumar Malhotra which fetched me my first gold medal in 1999 in the junior championship,” she said.

Since then, clinching medals apparently became a routine affair with her.

She participated in a State-level women’s power-lifting championship in Davangere and secured gold in the 82.5-kg category by lifting 225 kg. Continuing the winning trend, she won the silver medal in the national level championship in Durgapur, West Bengal, in 2000. She bagged the gold medal in the national junior power-lifting championship in Ranchi, Jharkhand. She set a record by lifting 355 kg in the 90-kg category, which turned out to be her best performance.

Indeed, the Ekalavya Award has brought enormous cheers to her. However, looking back at her achievements she feels that the award has come a bit too late than she expected. She has now stopped practising due to domestic problems. “I submitted my nomination for the award in 2004, while my best achievements were recorded up to 2002. They should have given the award to me much before,” she said.

She is dismayed over the lack of encouragement and financial aid for this sport. “I trained under a coach but only for a little over six months. After the coach was transferred, the Government did not appoint a new coach. I practised on my own with some guidance from my brother,” she said.

Geetha said that in the absence of financial support it was difficult to participate in competitions. The contestant, except receiving ticket concession from the Railways, gets no other benefits. “We have to spend from our pockets to participate in competitions. Five girls who trained with me could not continue because of financial constraints. If this is the situation, then how can one expect the youth to take up the game as a profession,” she asked.

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