This final match was very special for me and the team, says Iran’s Kabaddi coach Shailaja Jain

With an aim of proving herself the best Kabaddi coach, Shailaja Jain took the assignment of coaching the women's Kabaddi team of Iran. Her efforts, however, resulted in the Iranian team winning the women's Kabaddi event, bagging a gold after a long interval.

Jain, who originally hails from Nashik, in a bid to improve her communication with the team, even learned Parsi and joined as the coach of Iran women's Kabaddi team eighteen months ago and has been working constantly for their development.

“This final match was very special for me and the team. After a long time, Iran won a gold. I’m thankful to the Federation for showing faith in me. Communication was not easy, so I learned Parsi. Before the match, I told the girls ‘don’t send me back to India without the gold medal’. Some of them came back and told me ‘madam, we’ve given you what you wanted’,” she said.

“When I visited Iran first time after taking up the job, I said this is my mission, to prove I’m the best coach. And now we have the result. Today our defence after the first five minutes was very tight, which was crucial to our win. And three of our raiders were excellent,” she added.

Despite being upset because of her national team’s loss, she said that she has never acted partially just because she is an Indian citizen and has given her whole while mentoring Iran's team. She told that she had to work majorly on the strategies that had to be implemented during the matches.

“I’m sad India lost. Like any other Indian, I love my country. But I love kabaddi also. Being their coach, I think only of the Iran team. Kabaddi is very popular in Iran. They all know what kabaddi is about. Everyone watched this match back in Iran,” she said.

“In those seven months, they learned the tactics and strategy. I didn’t have to work on their fitness, they already were supremely fit,” Jain added.