Karam Prakash
Tribune News Service
Patiala, April 26
She trains without a coach, but that has hardly made a difference to triple jumper Khushbeen Waraich, who was selected to represent India in the 3rd South Asian Junior Athletics Championship at Sri Lanka from May 5.
The 18-year-old Patiala athlete’s section follows her bronze medal finish at the Junior Federation Cup in Coimbatore a few days back.
Khushbeen jumped 12.55m to claim the third position in the competition. The effort is also her personal best.
Analysing her performance at Coimbatore, the budding athlete said: “There were some patches on the track and despite sporting the spikes, I couldn’t get as much ground force as I should have, otherwise I could have won a gold.”
Khushbeen also rued the lack of the on field assistance from a coach, which other athletes enjoyed.
Khushbeen, a junior national medalist, has been training without a coach for the last two years. She struggles on the field every day as there is no one to guide her during the training. But she never lost hope. She watches the videos of international athletes to keep herself motivated.
Pertinently, while all other students of her age were preparing for the board exams recently, Khushbeen never missed a single practice session.
A multi-talented athlete, Khushbeen has also has to her credit U-18 national record in 100m sprint --- a 12.01s finish, which she recorded during the Punjab Open Games in Badal village.
“In the coming weeks, I will work only on my sprint and landing, which are very important components of triple jump. I am sure that I will be able to better my personal best,” she added.
Khushbeen has been declared the best athlete in the U-18 age group in the Punjab Open Games on five occasions, but even then no one from the government has come forward to support her.
“I don’t know why the Punjab Government has been so unsupportive. We are thinking, if we still don’t get any support from the government, Khushbeen might represent Haryana in future,” said Khushbeen’s mother.
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