Sahana Kumari: Will she defy the odds?

The 14th and last Indian athletics player to qualify for the London Olympics, Sahana Kumari, would have her eyes set on crossing the bar when the women’s high jump event gets underway today at 2:00 PM IST. Sahana qualified as recently as 23rd June 2012, when she jumped 1.92 m at the 52nd National Inter-State Championships, breaking the 8-year-old national record of Bobby Aloysius. Incidentally, she is the first jumper after Aloysius to qualify for the Olympics.

Born in Karnataka, Kumari does belong to a family of athletes. She learned high jump from her father. Her husband, B.G. Nagaraj, is a national level athlete, and her brother is a volleyball player. She was enthusiastic about outdoor sports from an early age as she took part in kabaddi, kho-kho and high jump in her school days. The seeds were sown early. She will surely be looking to reap some awards now.

But Sahana has had her fair share of struggles and controversies, both before and after qualifying for the Olympics. She wanted her Ukrainiain coach, Nikitin Evgeny to accompany her to the Games. But the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), with their hands tied in red tape, could not do much to fulfill this request of Kumari since their quota of five athletic coaches was already filled and also because they did not consider Evgeny to be a part of the official Indian contingent. This left Sahana stranded. “My coach will offer valuable feedback about my competitors and help me train. I need him to accompany me. But I am a central government employee, with a salary of Rs 25,000. I can’t afford the burden of five lakh,” she said. But a Mumbai-based NGO arrived at the right time to help her out.

“Ek Aur Prayaas“, started by Jaymin Panchal and supported by the father-son duo of Mahesh and Vikram Bondal, came to her rescue. The NGO began the project “Project High Jump for Olympics” through their website. They took the help of social media; through websites like Facebook and Twitter they shared the bank account details, where the funds could be accumulated. The efforts paid off. Eventually, the Karanataka government announced Rs. 5 lakh for all the 12 athletes from Karanataka who would be representing India at the London Olympics.”The financial part of the campaign is closed now. We have raised the few lakhs required for the coach’s trip to London. The Karnataka government’s gesture of awarding Rs 5 lakh also helped,” Panchal said.

But all these events will take a backseat in a few hours from now, when Kumari will go out on that field in the national colors. She will need to better her record of 1.92m to have a good chance of getting that elusive athletics silverware. If not a medal, we all will be satisfied if she delivers a fine performance like Vikas Gowda, Krishna Poonia and Irfan Kolothum Thodi, which would serve as a benchmark for youngsters in the years to come and inspire them to consider sports and athletics as a serious career option.