Mother’s day out

A few years ago, Rachita Panda was counted among the future sprint prospects. She had a medal in the Asian juniors in 1992 and was clocking...

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A few years ago, Rachita Panda was counted among the future sprint prospects. She had a medal in the Asian juniors in 1992 and was clocking under 12 seconds and had age on her side. Then, she fell in love, got married to Homiyar Mistry, a Mumbai athlete, and disappeared, as it were, from the athletics scene. When she re-surfaced at the Kanteerava Stadium today, with a kid in her arms, she could have been mistaken as part of the mothers-only brigade.

But she looked rather fit, and was looking at the track with the kind of intensity one expects only from active athletes. Living in Mumbai after marriage, she had been away from the track for more than two years. But, for the last four odd months, she had begun training with Adille Sumariwala, former National champion. Sumariwala, still as sprightly as he was when he was methodically collecting National 100m titles — he won the sprint no less than 11 times in either Open Nationals or the inter-state meet — is these days combining coaching with a corporate career. And he turned up in Bangalore, just to see his ward run.

For one who used to psyche out his opponents days before the race, Sumariwala was uncharacteristically quiet on his new ward. Maybe the experience of what had happened with Zenia Ayrton, who never realised her potential, had made him wiser. Before the final, he was tipping M K Asha for the title and was tight-lipped about Rachita. “The other seven, including P T Usha are almost of equal strength,” was all he would say and continue jabbering about how easy it was to run and how tense it is to be a coach — even part-time.

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When the race began, he may have had his eyes on his trainee, but he was mumbling, “Shyla, Pandeeswari … ” and then suddenly as the runners crossed the halfway mark, he realised Rachita after a great start was in the fray for the title. In a flash the runners went past the finish. “It’s Rachita, it’s Rachita …” he started screaming excitedly as the Orissa-born girl leaned forward in copy-book fashion. The time on right-hand corner screen read 11.83s — it was later amended to 11.86s.

For quite sometime, no one knew who the winner was, officially. V Pandeeswari had even been interviewed by one of the TV networks. Rachita, happy enough with a place, knew she was in a photo-finish, but so emotionally drained was she that she simply kneeled on the track and wept to herself. In joy, of course. And disbelief, too. After all, at the last National Games in Pune, she had been disqualified for two false starts.

Underprepared she may have been for this meet, but she sure did not lack fire and that showed from the start itself. Whether 25 — which is what she should be if she was under 20 in 1992 Asian juniors — or 27 as some others maintain, what cannot be disputed is that she has quite a few years left in serious athletics.

It could be the beginning of the second and more successful part of her career. And she has the likes of Reeth Abraham, Shiny Wilson, Rosa Kutty and Neelam Kumari to look upto, as all of them had even greater success after having a baby.