My target is now to better the timing of Saraswati Saha, India’s only athlete to have participated in the 200m at the Olympics. She ran the 200m in 22.82 seconds, I think I can better that
Srabani Nanda
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, June 26: In the 1990s and the first five years of the new century a common phrase used to be said about the two legendary Ws of the Pak cricket team – Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. It went like this – ‘If Wasim can, so will Waqar’. The same thing can now probably be used for the two Oriya sprint queens – Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda.
Dutee qualified for the Rio Games 100 metres, Saturday. It turned out to be a double delight for Orissa as Srabani Nanda followed in her footsteps to qualify for the 200m in Rio. She clocked a time of 23.07 Sunday in the finals of her event at the G Kosanov Memorial Athletics Meet at Almaty, Kazakhstan to bag the bronze with a third-place finish. The cut-off time for Olympics was 23.30 seconds. In the process, Srabani became the third athlete to be called an Olympian after Anuradha Biswal and Dutee.
The two-storeyed house in Mastrapara area of Phulbani had been waiting with bated breath since Sunday morning. The good news finally came through around noon. “Mom, I have qualified for Rio Olympics,” Srabani stated over the phone to her mother Subhasini Rayguru who by profession is a schoolteacher. She in turn passed on the news to Srabani’s father Banabihari Nanda who works in a private firm after retiring from his government job. Srabani’s mother informed this paper that originally the family hails from Raychakradharpur village, Sakhigopal in Puri district.
“Neighbours also started pouring in the moment, the news spread,” stated Subhasini. “We have been flooded with sweets and bouquets,” she added.
It has indeed been a long and hard journey for the Oriya sprinter who for the last three years has been away from home criss-crossing SAI Centres in Kolkata, Bangalore and Patiala to be with her current coach Tarun Saha.
“I am extremely happy that I have been able to qualify for Rio,” Srabani stated after achieving the right to be called an ‘Olympian’. “I want to thank my coaches, Nilamadhab Deo Sir, my parents as well as my grandparents Biswanath Nanda and Swarnalata Nanda. They have been a constant source of encouragement and without their support, I wouldn’t have been where I am today,” stated the sprinter.
“I felt a little numb at first, then recovered to offer a prayer on the running track itself, before waving to my fellow teammates who were in the stands. All of them waved and later on hugged me. It was indeed a great feeling,” Srabani added.
Srabani’s story en route to Rio may not have had the same pathos that Dutee’s had. But even then, it has been one of grit, guts and finally glory. It is not easy to stay away from home day after day, miss favourite food items like ‘Matar curry and ‘Rice Chakoli’ and then go that extra step to reduce time by a nano-second. But Srabani has done that and for that she definitely deserves a huge applause.
Her feat is turns extraordinary simply because Srabani had also clocked 11.30 seconds in the 100m at the Indian Grand Prix Athletics meet at New Delhi, April 27. But then the time was not ratified by the IAAF as the electronic scoreboard at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium was not working and all timings were recorded on hand held devices. But Srabani did not allow that to affect her mindset and finally managed to beat all odds and qualify for the Olympics.