CHENNAI: Two days before Tamil Nadu's C Kanimozhi left for Patiala to take part in the 60th National Inter-State Athletics Championships – where she won gold in the 100m hurdles on Friday – she lost one of her close relatives to COVID-19.
It was difficult to digest for a 24-year-old who has suffered a spate of losses in her family to the dreaded virus recently. Coupled with her inability to train for the majority of the past couple of months due to lockdown in Chennai, Kanimozhi says she wasn't in the right mental state to be competing in Patiala.
"I was initially thinking of not coming to Patiala for the inter-state meet. From the time lockdown was enforced in May, I was not able to train. It is only in the past couple of weeks that I resumed. And given the situation in the family, it became even harder. I have lost around 10 family members to COVID. But I eventually decided to come since this is an important event," Kanimozhi told The New Indian Express on Friday.
Despite the incredibly tragic circumstances, Kanimozhi was able to come out on top on Friday with a timing of 13.66 seconds. Just three months ago, the Chennai girl had achieved a timing of 13.63 seconds her personal best - to win the 100m hurdles at the Federation Cup in Patiala in March. Though short of her PB, she is content.
"Given the circumstances, I haven’t done badly at all. My timing is only a little below my personal best. I feel I could have done much better if I had a little more training," the Southern Railway employee said.
At a time when she was stressing over the COVID cases in her family, the arrest of her athletics coach last month on allegations of sexual harassment also ended up affecting her. "I became mentally weak. He has been training me since 2009. I have personally never had an issue with him. I have no problem. But he has done a lot for my career in athletics," he added.