Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

All round excellence

Korada Mrudula is a medal hope in international arena

PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

Hogging limelight Mrudula with her coach Ramesh

That one can be good in both athletics and academics is proved by Korada Mrudula, who scored 92 per cent marks in her X std exams and hogging the limelight on the track as well. She was college first in Intermediate and in Degree she continues to get distinction with ease.

Soon after her father, employed in the Indian Air Force was transferred from Bangalore to Dundigul near Hyderabad , Mrudula walked into the Sports Authority of India STC in Begumpet Police Stadium. And, to her delight, she bumped into two enthusiastic officals – K. Prabhakar (now Saroornagar SAI administrator) and SAI coach Nagapuri Ramesh.

With Ramesh insisting that she first attend the coaching camp for sometime before an honest assessment of her talent was done, Mrudula had no option but to join him at Gymkhana Grounds instead of taking part in the scheduled selection trials for admission to STC. Luck smiled on her as the trials were cancelled and were held after a month by which time Ramesh was convinced of the abundance of talent in Mrudula. And the rest is there for everyone to see as the 20-year-old athlete is now the best hope for international medal from Andhra Pradesh.

For , Ramesh, moulding the raw talent in Mrudula was a big challenge. Fortunately, he showed his familiar, unquestionable zeal and enthusiasm and his trainee Mrudula too complemented that with some stunning results.

“For me the ultimate goal is to represent India in the international meets,” says the B.Com final year student of Kasturba Gandhi College. The fact that she desisted herself from thinking about joining any of those corporates by virtue of academic record and preferred to be in athletics where ironically even the national medallists often end up getting a Grade III job in a Central Government with Rs. 8000 per month is proof of Mrudula’s intense desire to be something big in Indian athletics.

Keeping track of her every movement, Ramesh is gunning for greater glory – a medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. “She is young and is performing in the crucial transition phase just when the big guns of Indian women’s athletics Manjeet Kaur, Chitra and even Andhra’s Geetha (she is now 23 years) are ageing,” says Ramesh, who is using the ‘speed rubber’ brought from South Africa to increase the speed of his trainees in the sprints.

V.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail