New Delhi, November 6
Rachana Govil was in the eye of a storm when she was selected for the Arjuna Award this year for her “lifetime achievement to sports".
‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh had kicked up a virtual national row when he questioned the selection of athlete-turned-shooter Rachana Govil and gymnast Kalpana Debnath for the Arjuna Award. Milkha refused to accept the award, while Asian discus throw champion Anil Kumar went to court, challenging the choice of Rachana and Kaplana for the award.
The Arjuna Award function was stalled for a while, before President K R Narayanan finally presented the awards at the Rashtrapathi Bhawan on September 29.
Anil Kumar's suit, challenging the conferment of the Arjuna Award to Rachana and Kalpana, will come up for hearing at the Delhi High Court on November 20.
But during all this noice, the petite Rachana kept her poise. The presentable Rachana is nobody's fool, but she chose to keep her counsel, as in her heart of hearts, she knew that the Arjuna Award came to her on merit.
A look at her achievements is proof enough to establish her eligibility for the award. But she does not tom-tom about her achievements. She simply quotes cold statistics to prove her point.
She says she is the “only Indian woman to have set national records in two different disciplines”. She broke the national record of 3000 metres in 1981, and equalled the national record in 10 metres air pistol in 1998.
She lifted the gold medal in the Indira Gandhi Marathon at Allahabad in 1985, when she warded off the challenge of 100 women athletes. She had a clear lead of over four kilometres from the second-placed Sunita Godara, when she breasted the tape. Sunita Godara was a marathon runner of repute by then, and later made a name for herself in the international circuit, too.
Still, Sunita could not match the well-paced run of the spindly Govil, who took full advantage of her underdog status to emerge the surprise winner. Rachana broke the national record in 3000m by clocking 10:12.2
second in the All-India Open Athletic Championship held at Lucknow in 1981. And her shooting record materialised when she shot 381 out of 400 points in the 10m air pistol event in the Northern India championship at Chandigarh in Nov 1998.
She had won several other medals in various national meets, and attended coaching camps for the Asian Games (1982) and the Commonwealth Games.
In fact, her medal pickings are one gold and one bronze at the international level, 12 medals in national athletic meets and four medals in national shooting, 14 medals at national level competitions, and as many as 76 medals at the zonal/State championships. An impressive haul indeed.
Yet, her detractors accused her of 'manipulating' her way to the Arjuna Award. Ever since the Arjuna
Award was instituted in 1961, perhaps this was the one award function which mired in a lot of unseemingly controversy. But Rachana Govil is unfazed.
“I feel it is the handiwork of vested interests (kicking up a row about the conferment of the Arjuna Award to her). Some people were keen to tarnish my image, and deny me the award”, she says with a benign smile, having had the satisfaction of having
7the last laugh, eventually. Rachana has seriously started training in the 10m air pistol event, at home, in her bid to do bigger things at the national and international stage, though time constraints restricts her training schedule to a mere half an hour every day.
Rachana had almost given up competitive sports after she joined the Sports Authority of India in 1987. But the Arjuna Award controversy has fired her spirits to stage yet another comeback, at least in shooting. She had broken the 22 sports pistol 25-metre record in the J V Mavlankar Championship in 1999, when she shot 279.
She says her grounding in athletics has enabled to excel in shooting “as I have now realised what all muscles to be strengthened, and what all exercises to be done, to perfect my shooting skills”.
“You have to fight against yourself, both in athletics and shooting, and that's what the lesson I have learnt from athletics”, she says like a seasoned campaigner. But lack of competitive training is restricting her progress, as she mostly practises at home.
“But when I shoot, I shoot with the temperament that I am shooting in a competition”, she explained. And she also observes as many top shooters as possible to pick some vital tips. “Shooting is a highly scientific sport. And I have developed my own technique", she says confidently. And her style is that” I pick up the pistol and shoots straight at the target, instead of taking time to focus on the target”, she adds.
She practises and competes with a loaned pistol, and uses
indigenous pellets for practice. This helps her during competition, as imported pellets are used for competitive events. She is very confident that "if I practice for two-three hours daily, I can break a world record”.
Because, she has now come to the definite conclusion that how she stands and how she holds the pistol determines her performance. "If you master these techniques, you can do wonders”, she avers.
Though most of her time is now devoted to give her full attention to the various SAI schemes under her charge, there burns that undying passion to make her mark as a
sportsperson all over again. At least to prove her critics wrong. Un undying passion indeed lies beneath her lithe figure, to excel in their chosen sport.
