The Hindu : Nisha on comeback trail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003

Sport

Sport - Swimming

Nisha on comeback trail

By Kalyan Ashok

BANGALORE March 24. It is hard to keep a champion down. Two years ago, it looked it was all over for the Indian swimming ace Nisha Millet, who was struck down by a recurrent back pain which forced her out of competitions. But today, Nisha Millet is back in serious training at her former Club in Australia, the Perth City Swim Club.

It was after her return from Sydney Olympics in 2000, Nisha's back problem assumed a menacing proportion. After several tests, it was finally diagnosed that she had a non-malignant tumor on her spine, which was posing a danger to her career.

Nisha underwent surgery in Coimbatore last September and was soon back on her feet.

A couple of months ago Nisha, while she was still on the road to recovery, received good help from unexpected quarters.

By chance, she met the Indian cricket team skipper Sourav Ganguly and physio, Andrew Leipus, who offered to assist her.

Leipus gave her a series of exercises to strengthen her lower back and ever since that fortuitous meeting, Nisha has been regularly in touch with Leipus, who in her words was of "immense help''. She was also grateful to Ganguly who told her that she could take Leipus' assistance whenever she wanted.

Back in Perth, nothing much has changed for Nisha as her old coach Bernie Mulroy again putting her through the paces.

The target for the Indian swimmer is to qualify for the World championship scheduled to be held in Barcelona in July and then compete in the Asian Age Group meet in Macau in August and that will be followed by the Afro-Asian Games, back home in October. She will then aim for the 2004 Olympics.

When contacted by The Hindu, Nisha said from Perth: "It has been nearly three weeks since I came here (Perth) and I have been doing 10 sessions a week and I have dropped a few kgs and working hard on my fitness, and timings too have improved. The works-outs are much harder than what I used to do in India, but the coach Bernie Mulroy has told me to take one day at a time. He has prepared a three-month schedule for me. The accent right now is on getting back into good shape for international meets. The former Commonwealth gold medallist Rachel Harris, who used to train here has retired. But he has turned a coach and helping me."

According to Nisha, Bernie Mulroy was confident that she could make the World championship and Olympics cut.

"He is very optimistic that I can qualify for the big meets and I have been doing about 6 km per session and I don't feel the back pain and I am doing exercises for the lower back''.

She also acknowledged the help of Andrew Leipus in her recovery. "If it wasn't for him, it would have taken another three months for me to return to swimming'', she said.

Nisha, who still holds National record in 200m freestyle, has her sights set on making the grade in the 200 and 400m freestyle events in the World championships and the Olympics, if possible go for the 800m freestyle also. Also in her scheme of things is to make the cut in the 100 and 200m back stroke.

Mulroy is fully aware of how much load Nisha can take as it was he, who trained her to qualify for the Olympics in 2000. "I am clear about the goals and I hope to make good comeback'', said Nisha.

That should be good news for the Indian swimming, which is desperately in search of an international success.

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