Dang girl raises India’s medals hope in Indonesia

Surat: Tribal athlete Sarita Gaekwad from a remote village in the Dang has raised hopes of winning medals for the country in the Asian Games scheduled to be held in August 2018 by winning gold medals in two events at the 8th Asian Games test event held in Indonesia recently.
Sarita won gold in 400 metre hurdle with a timing of 59.08 seconds beating competitors from 35 Asian countries. She also won gold in 400x4 relay together with Nitya from Karnataka, Sonia from West Bengal and Hima from Assam. “Although her timing of 400 metre hurdle was not that impressive, she would win a medal for the country,” her coach Jaymal Nayak from Chikhli College in Navsari, where she was enrolled for her graduation, said.
M R Desai Arts and E E Lahiri Commerce College managing trustee Darshan Desai said, “We have been supporting her from the time she came from her village in the Dang. We are confident that she will do well in the international competitions.”
Sarita (23) is daughter of a farm labourer from Karadi Amba village near Ahwa in the Dang district. “There was rapid improvement in her in the last two years after she began to be trained by international coaches in Punjab and Kerala,” Nayak added.
She has been training at Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala, ever since her selection in the Indian team. With a timing of 55.56 seconds in 400 metre hurdle, she is now rated as country’s top three runners.
“My aim is to win a medal for the country in an international competition. I am confident of doing well in the Asian Games,” Sarita said. She incurs an expense of more than Rs 1 lakh per year on her clothes, shoes, travel and food supplements, which was a problem earlier, but not anymore.
by via Surat News, Latest Surat News Headlines & Live Updates - Times of India