BHOPAL: With the training grounds yet to be unlocked totally, budding athletes have made steep climbs and slopes of hillocks and agricultural farms their practice grounds in Madhya Pradesh.
Aged 21, Vipin Jaiswal, a budding 100 and 200 meters sprinter, has been training since last seven to eight months on the hillock and the connecting tarred road built under the Pradhan Gramin Sadak Yojana in native Dewas district. Chasing a dream of making it to the Indian team for the 2022 Asian Games in China, the gutsy sprinter who finished fourth in the 100 meters dash at a national level tourney in Odisha in 2019, is training alone on the hillock in Dewas district.
Vipin was training under seasoned athletics coach Sunita Rai at Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium, when the first lock-down happened in March 2020, forcing the closure of all sports facilities across the country. “I was left with no option but to return home and train near my village only. For the last seven to eight months, the hillock and connecting road has been my training ground.
I know it well that running on tarred road could be disastrous for my knees, but with professional training grounds yet to be unlocked fully and lack of money with me to train under professional coaches at places where the sports facilities have been unlocked, I’m left with no option, but to train on the hillock and connecting road,” he said.
Around 325 km away in Sagar district, a real life Dangal movie seems to be in the making, as an agricultural labourer trains his three teenage daughters in achieving their dreams of making it big one day in middle and long distance running.
Vinod Rajak has turned a coach to his three daughters Kajal (15), Astha (17) and Pooja (19). The sisters are training hard in their farm and on the sides of railway tracks in Karonda village near Bina town. “I was planning to get them enrolled at sports facilities with whatever money I’ve at my disposal, but COVID lock-down ruined all our plans,” said Rajak.