17 athletes will receive the nation’s top sporting honour this year. SS takes a look at some of their heartwarming stories
Sathish Shivalingam
The Railways clerk, who has been waiting for a promotion ever since his gold-winning feat at the CWG, is elated to have been nominated for the Arjuna award. “I was expecting to get this award since the Commonwealth Games. That is why I put in my application, and I’m happy to have been chosen for this prestigious prize,” says the 23-year-old.
The weightlifter’s father, who owns a gym, has been a crucial component to his success. “My father’s gym is where I started lifting, and without his sacrifice and hard work, I would not be where I am today. Even when there were financial troubles at home, he would make sure that my training was taken care of. My mother, a housewife, has also been very supportive of my career,” he reveals.
Sathish, who missed the Asian Games in Incheon after falling sick with sore throat and fever last year, says his next aim is to make the cut for the 2016 Rio Olympics. His next assignment involves the World Championship and the Commonwealth Championship, for which he will participate in trials in Patiala soon.
Sandeep Kumar
When Sandeep Kumar was in Class IV, his armyman father Raj Singh started giving him shooting lessons. Little did he know he would make a name for himself in another variant of marksmanship — compound archery.
“Dad won the Services gold medal in light machine gun in 1987. I enrolled into the 21st Jat Regiment in 2009, but couldn’t get into the Young Blood Championship, because I was over-age,” the 27-year-old recalls.
Then in 2011, destiny played her card and his future coach Sunil Kumar spotted him in a marketplace. The Arjuna Award announcement is testament to that. “I was in Ranchi for an army training drill when Sunil sir saw me and said I would do well in compound. He had no idea of my background in marksmanship.”
Sandeep won team bronze in the 2013 World Cup, team gold and individual silver in the 2013 Asian Championships as well as the team gold in the 2014 Asian Games. “We were confident of beating South Korea in the Asiad. It was the fruit of self belief,” he adds. Sandeep isn’t taking part in the World Cup in Poland, but will return in the Colombia edition.
Jitu Rai
India’s best athlete last year is one of the biggest medal hopes for the Rio Olympics. Coming from a humble background, a tiny village in Sankhuwasabha district in Eastern Nepal, he grew up on the paddy fields there as a farmer. At 19, his father passed away and that prompted him to leave his country of birth and look for a better life to support his family. He joined the 11 Gorkha Regiment as a sepoy and moved up the ladder. Jitu has admitted that he took up shooting by accident. Early on, he dreaded the training routines. Gradually, his interest for the sport grew. His talent was there to see then as he dominated shooting competitions organised by the Army. But he had to suffer couple of setbacks before achieving glory. Twice in 2007 and 2008, he was sent back after failing to impress in the army camp. And when he finally made the cut for the Indian team in 2011, he couldn’t participate due to visa issues. In 2014 ISSF World, the armyman was in his elements as he shot down three medals in the space of nine days, becoming the first Indian to win double in single World Cup event. He followed it up with a golden run in the Glasgow CWG.
Bajrang and Babita phogat
For Bajrang, dedication plus hard work is an effective concoction. Sprinkle copious amounts of asceticism and you get the work ethics of Bajrang. Though the 21-year-old is fondly being called Bajrangi Bhaijaan after Salman Khan’s latest flick, he has never been to a theatre. Bajrang credits his achievements — silver in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games — to this restraint.
“Youngsters of my age are making merry and I can see that. But that doesn’t affect me at all. I even don’t go out after training. After 6-7 hours of training, I come back to my room. I miss all the golden times of my youth but once I fulfill my wrestling ambitions, I will like to spend time in movie theatres,” Bajrang said.
Babita followed in her elder sister Geeta’s footprints to bring the second Arjuna to her ancestral home in Balali, Haryana. The journey hasn’t been easy. If it was silver in 2010 CWG that helped her evade the barricades set by patriarchal society, her battle was with a ligament tear during the 2014 CWG, where she won gold. “Doctors had advised me rest but I insisted on playing. I think that was a brave decision,” she said. She braved niggles to win silver in the Incheon Asian Games.
Dipa karmakar
Injuries and medals are the most assured takeaways a gymnast can have. The 22-year-old Tripura girl has had a fair share of both. Ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she sustained an injury in her right ankle which failed to heal in time. But the gritty gymnast endured the travails to bag a bronze. “Injury is part and parcel of gymnastics. My ankle was not well in Glasgow and it was there on the back of my mind that If I do some land wrong, I stand the chance of worsening the injury. Had it been all okay, I would’ve done better,” she said. Dipa withstood pain in the Incheon Asiad to fetch a creditable fourth
MR Poovamma
All was well for the 25-year-old Kannada athlete till the Federation Cup in Patiala in September 2014 which served as trials for the Incheon Asiad. Always being accompanied by her mother in all domestic competitions till then, the news that her mom Jaji would’ve to miss the Patiala event due to back pain was a shocker for her. She somehow cajoled Jaji to join her in Patiala. In Incheon, she missed her mom’s company, but managed a bronze. “She is my source of strength. If she was around it could’ve given me more confidence. I always cherish her presence. We have a wonderful chemistry and that’s why she has been accompanying me to all venues,” she said.
Mandeep Jangra
Tactically astute and firm on his beliefs, boxer Mandeep Jangra has come a long way. For his dedication to Indian boxing, he was fitttingly chosen for the prestigious Arjuna Award. Like any other success story, the Commonwealth silver medallist has had to overcome adversities in life to realise his dream. His father is a mason while his mother is a homemaker. It was hard for his family, based in Hisar, to make ends meet while he was a schoolgoer, forget about helping out in his quest for boxing. But he had determination aplenty, which helped him during those tough days.
“Boxing was always my dream. It was tough for my family. If I had to buy something, it was difficult to ask money to my parents. I used to ask my grandmother for money sometimes. She was a pensioner. She used to encourage me a lot,” he says. With little money in his pocket provided by his grandmother, Mandeep left home for Bhiwani for studies/training in 2007. He put up in his friend Karan’s makeshift store for about seven months. He is thankful to him until this day. “I had no money to pay rent. The room was barely big enough to house someone. I had no other alternative. I used to cook for myself. I used to cycle/hitch to school which was around 15kms away. I would hang on the bus and steal a ride. Sometimes, I would get caught and thrown out.” His hardwork paid off. It was in Bhiwani where he was spotted by now mentor Akhil Kumar, and the rest, as they say, is history. Mandeep is currently preparing for the upcoming Asian Championship — Olympic qualifiers — in Assisi, Italy, with the Italy national team. “I’m happy how my life has turned out to be. When I started out, I just wanted to provide a better life for my family.”
PR Sreejesh
Though the 27-year-old’s introduction to hockey was dramatic, his displays ever since he was drafted into the national side has been emphatic. Sreejesh grew in stature after saving two penalty strokes against Pakistan in Incheon Asian Games final that helped the team clinch gold. With him at the goalmouth, India also won a silver in the 2014 CWG.