Not Winning Travel Bag As Prize Led Priyanka To Take Up Race Walking | Mumbai News – Times of India
Mumbai: Not winning a travel bag frustrated Priyanka Goswami so much that her coach suggested that she should take up race walking. At the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Priyanka’s journey from a casual sports enthusiast to a medal-winning athlete came to fruition. She won the silver in the 10000m.
Winning a travel bag was the start of her journey into race walking. As a sixth standard student, she was interested in sports and when her school suggested students to pick a sport, she dived and landed in gymnastics. It proved too tough for Priyanka who endured the tongue lashing from her gymnastics coaches.
Priyanka sought refuge and landed on the track, winning 800 m races in her school. But when it came to winning at the district level in Meerut, it was a difficult proposition. She just could not bag her travel bags as that was the prize for podium finishers.
Her coach too felt bad for her and suggested that she take part in race walking event as there were only two athletes. Priyanka finished third and the bag was finally hers.
That travel bag became a metaphor for her to pursue a career in race walking where winning medals and explaining to folks what she did was proving to be difficult.
It has taken Priyanka years to bag an international medal. But she still finds it difficult to explain her sport. “We neither run nor walk, it involves lots of technique which needs to be learnt. Training too is hard, but I sort of enjoy it. The degree of difficulty is huge as the moment we increase the pace, there is a danger of leaving contact with the ground,” Priyanka said during an event in Mumbai that saw Athletics Federation of India (AFI) announce its partnership with HSBC India to support women athletes of the country.
Race walking is a sport where the athletes need to stay in constant contact with the ground and he/she does so by walking without bending the knees and rolling their hips. For the uninitiated, it may look funny, but can be very gruelling.
Rules are strict in race walking though it is a touch more relaxed from a time when third warning would force an athlete to stop the race or even be disqualified metres away from the finish line.
Apart from the sprints (where false start can derail one ambition), very few track events lead to disqualification of an athlete before finishing the race.
Luckily, Priyanka has only been put in a penalty corner twice, she has no disqualifications to her name so far. Penalty corner is a spot in the course where an erring athlete is asked to wait for two minutes, killing any advantage he/she may have if they are leading the race. In Birmingham, she led for a brief while before losing the lead to Jemima Montag and finishing in 43.38, more than a minute behind the Australian.
She wants more awareness on race walking as she feels anybody can take up the sport with a little technical help. “Yeah, but we are constantly bombarded with questions as to what we actually do,” says Priyanka. Her parents encouraged her though they too were baffled with her sport. “To add to their confusion, I was not winning any international medals. Now that I have won the CWG silver, they feel, I can win at the Asian Games,” explains Priyanka.
Winning a travel bag was the start of her journey into race walking. As a sixth standard student, she was interested in sports and when her school suggested students to pick a sport, she dived and landed in gymnastics. It proved too tough for Priyanka who endured the tongue lashing from her gymnastics coaches.
Priyanka sought refuge and landed on the track, winning 800 m races in her school. But when it came to winning at the district level in Meerut, it was a difficult proposition. She just could not bag her travel bags as that was the prize for podium finishers.
Her coach too felt bad for her and suggested that she take part in race walking event as there were only two athletes. Priyanka finished third and the bag was finally hers.
That travel bag became a metaphor for her to pursue a career in race walking where winning medals and explaining to folks what she did was proving to be difficult.
It has taken Priyanka years to bag an international medal. But she still finds it difficult to explain her sport. “We neither run nor walk, it involves lots of technique which needs to be learnt. Training too is hard, but I sort of enjoy it. The degree of difficulty is huge as the moment we increase the pace, there is a danger of leaving contact with the ground,” Priyanka said during an event in Mumbai that saw Athletics Federation of India (AFI) announce its partnership with HSBC India to support women athletes of the country.
Race walking is a sport where the athletes need to stay in constant contact with the ground and he/she does so by walking without bending the knees and rolling their hips. For the uninitiated, it may look funny, but can be very gruelling.
Rules are strict in race walking though it is a touch more relaxed from a time when third warning would force an athlete to stop the race or even be disqualified metres away from the finish line.
Apart from the sprints (where false start can derail one ambition), very few track events lead to disqualification of an athlete before finishing the race.
Luckily, Priyanka has only been put in a penalty corner twice, she has no disqualifications to her name so far. Penalty corner is a spot in the course where an erring athlete is asked to wait for two minutes, killing any advantage he/she may have if they are leading the race. In Birmingham, she led for a brief while before losing the lead to Jemima Montag and finishing in 43.38, more than a minute behind the Australian.
She wants more awareness on race walking as she feels anybody can take up the sport with a little technical help. “Yeah, but we are constantly bombarded with questions as to what we actually do,” says Priyanka. Her parents encouraged her though they too were baffled with her sport. “To add to their confusion, I was not winning any international medals. Now that I have won the CWG silver, they feel, I can win at the Asian Games,” explains Priyanka.
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