THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Unlike the other gold medal winners at the State Athletics Championship, V D Anjali's victory in the senior girls' javelin is particularly impressive.
Hailing from Valappad in Thrissur, Anjali belonging to a fisherman family, achieved the feat braving all the odds. Though she could not script a new mark, she dedicated the victory to her father V V Dinesh from whom she had picked up the basis of the high-power field event.
The Class XII student had toiled for three years before she became adept in the event. Besides her father, the unstinted support from the Nattika Government Fisheries High School helped her evolve into a champion. "Though I had won the event in junior category when I was in Class IX, this victory is a special one as it is my final year in school. Not only mine, my father's efforts too paid off. He is a fisherman and he invested a lot of time in helping me pick up the basics and to buy the costly javelin," Anjali said.
It was a back injury - she was a long-distance runner initially - which resulted in Anjali focusing on javelin following a suggestion made by her father.
" At one point, my daughter was very confused about her future in sports. But I have given her all the confidence. I am happy that she won a gold medal and it is a precious gift. As a fisherman, I did not have enough money to buy the materials for my child. But I had managed to buy the equipment.
It costs over `10,000," Dinesh said. Anjali wants to pursue a career in sports and she has already decided to study in sports college at Thrissur . She also made it clear her participation in the school athletics was not for obtaining grace marks -she wants to become a world champion in the javelin. Anjali's mother Mini is a housewife and she has two sisters.