Resilient Swapna Barman dreams of one last hurrah
Five years ago, Swapna Barman was the toast of the nation. Squeezing six toes in each foot, Barman sprinted, jumped, and hurdled to golden glory in heptathlon — the most excruciating of disciplines — at the Asian Games in Jakarta. She hid her pain behind a big smile and hoped for a sponsor to make customised shoes for her. There was a beeline of brands for Barman, but injury battered her body to the extent that she thought of retirement last year.
She cut down on her participation over the last couple of seasons. Until she resolved to make one final attempt and go to the Asian Games this year to defend her title. Regardless of an injury-ravaged body, she is still the best Indian in heptathlon as she showed at the Inter-State meet last month.
On Saturday, she showed she still has enough quality to win a silver medal at the Asian Championships in Bangkok. It was her third medal at the continental meet after gold in 2017 and silver in 2019. Barman tallied 5840 points in seven events with Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina taking the gold medal (6098 points).
"The condition of my back is very bad. It hurts. I can't train twice a day. I can't climb stairs with one foot. For the last two and half months, I have not jumped hurdles. I have given up squats. That is the level of my injury. So, whatever little I could train, I am happy with my performance," said the 26-year-old.
Then, what keeps her going?
"My target is to give my best at the Asian Games. I will then see how long I can continue. But I would like to go out on a high, and not when people start questioning that she is not good enough to compete and therefore left. I want to show that I can still do something," she said.
Relay gold, high jump silver
It was fascinating to watch India’s 4x400m mixed relay team of Rajesh Ramesh, Aishwarya Mishra, Amoj Jacob, and Suba Venkatesan win gold with a new national record timing (3:14.70sec). The team also qualified for the Budapest World Championships that begin on August 19. Venkatesan ran a blistering anchor, sprinting past Japan's Nanako Mutsumoto and Sri Lanka's Nadeesha Ramanayke. Sri Lanka won silver (3:15.41s) and Japan took the bronze medal (3:15.71s).
In high jump, Sarvesh Anil Kushare clinched silver. He crossed the bar at 2.26m for his season's best performance. Woo Sanghyeok of Korea took gold with a jump of 2.28m. Tejaswin Shankar, the national record holder in high jump, finished 7th (2.10m). Shankar won bronze in decathlon on Thursday. In 400m hurdles, Santhosh Kumar won bronze with a personal best timing of 49.09 secs.
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