Avantika Narale returns post setback, wins two Asian Youth Athletics medals
Avantika Narale has won a gold and a silver medal in 100m and 200m, respectively, at the 2019 Asian Youth Athletics Championship in Hong Kong. This comes as a huge win for her, as earlier she had failed to even start her race at the Khelo India Youth Games, where she was the defending champion.
16-year-old Avantika Narale has emerged as the fastest sprinter at the third Asian Youth Athletics Championship, as she clocked 11.97 seconds, also her personal best, to finish first in the 100m dash. She also followed it up with a second place finish in the 200m race.
The Pune girl had suffered a huge setback in January in the second Khelo India games as she did not hear the gunshot, and failed to even start her race. This eroded her confidence, and she even took to meditation post the unfortunate event. It took a great deal of effort on her part, as well as her coach Sanjay Patankar’s part, in order to get her back onto the track.
"She was scared to even get on to the starting block after the Khelo India incident. We had to consult a psychologist, who taught her meditation. She has been meditating since then and it has helped her deal with her fear of starting the race," Patankar was quoted, as reported by TOI.
In spite of her redeeming victory, Avantika’s coach added that she will be needing to work on her reaction time. Her reaction time was 0.277 seconds, to give context, the gold medallist of the previous edition had a reaction time of 0.157 seconds. "She ran well, but her reaction was slow on Saturday. We have been working on that, but it will take time," the coach added.
The girl, studying in tenth grade of Lonkar Vidyalaya in Pune, also had to miss three of her SSC papers so that she could appear for the championship, scheduled simultaneously with her board exams. However, her hard work paid off as she performed exceptionally well.Â
"She couldn't appear for both (exams and championship), so she decided to miss three subjects' exams. She will come back on Monday and appear for the next two subjects, which are scheduled on Wednesday and Friday," the coach concluded.