Golden girl Seema returns

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 25. Seema Antil, the 18-year-old girl from Sonepat, who won the discus gold in the just-concluded World junior athletic championships at Santiago, Chile, returned here on Wednesday to a warm welcome from her family, friends and officials.

A sizeable crowd was there at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, mainly comprising people from Sonepat, to receive the first global athletic champion of the country. On behalf of the Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) its Secretary, Mr. Lalit Bhanot, was on hand to congratulate her and receive the rest of the squad.

Later, at a felicitation function, it was disclosed that the AAFI President, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, had announced a cash award of Rs. one lakh for Seema, to be presented at a function to be arranged soon. The Executive Director of the TEAMS Wing in the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Maj. O. P. Bhatia, also announced that the Union Government would be giving a fitting reward to the athlete.

Amidst the glare of the arc lights and milling mediapersons, Seema said she was confident of winning a medal in the Santiago championships. She had gone into the meet as the No. 1 junior in the world after her Calcutta Open performance of 57.20m and though everyone, including herself, was down on their personal bests, Seema led the qualifiers with a 54.83 and that projected her as a gold medal contender.

``Everybody said she is going to win,'' said the coach of the team, Mr. J. S. Saini. ``She told me she would get a medal, but wasn't sure which one it would be,'' Mr. Saini added. ``My aim was to give my best in the final,'' said Seema. Asked if she was confident of overhauling the Chinese (Xu Shaoyang) after the latter went ahead in the final round with a 54.41, Seema said she threw the last one with the aim of getting the gold. That one measured 55.27m and the gold was Seema's. Mr. Saini said Seema's strong point was her will power. The coach, who was associated with her training in recent months at the senior camp, Jaswant Singh, opined that having trained with the National record holder, Neelam J. Singh, his wife, Seema had gained considerably.

Like all other young athletes, Seema also nurses hopes of winning a medal in the Olympics. She said she was targeting the next Olympics in Athens in 2004. She would also be eligible to participate in the next World junior championships to be held in Jamaica in 2002.

Mr. Saini and Mr. Bhanot said that the federation would be looking into the possibility of sending Seema abroad for specialised training either as part of a larger programme or at a personalised level.

Mr. Saini said `yes' and `no' to a question whether he was satisfied with the performance of the team as a whole. He said that Seema, male discus thrower Krishnakumar Sharma and high hurdler Gurpreet Singh had performed very creditably, while the three others, shot putter Kuldeep Singh Mann, 800m runner P. S. Primesh and woman quarter-miler Sapinder Kaur were disappointing.

Sharma was eighth in the men's discus with a throw of 52.01m, having entered the final with a best of 52.06m.

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