By Our Special Correspondent
Three young sportswomen from the State showed the nation what indefatigable spirit could achieve. Despite hailing from a poor, rural background, these three gritty young women won medals at the Khelo India Youth Games, making Andhra Pradesh proud.
Andhra Pradesh early medalists in the Khelo India Youth Games here - Rajitha, Pallavi and Sireesha have one more thing in common. Each of them comes from a heart-wrenchingly poor background.
According to the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Rajitha, who sprinted to gold in the Girls 400 meters, is from a remote village in Ramachandrapuram, Alluri Sitarama Raju district.
She belongs to the Koya tribe. Her father passed away when she was very young and it was her mother, Bhadramma, who took care of Rajitha and her four siblings. “My mother worked as a laborer, from morning to night, but still could not earn enough to feed all of us.
"Each of them has a very sad story to tell. This is poverty at a different level," June explained. "This is of course not the common strain only in athletics. It's the same story in several other sports."
Sports became a career option for Rajitha when her talent for running was spotted by Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) coaches Vamsi Sai Kiran and Krishna Mohan, who later honed her skills.
She might be training under Dronacharya coach Nagapuri Ramesh in Hyderabad now but it is at her own expense. "A gentleman named Nagendra donates Rs 10,000 per month to keep me going. I pay 6,000 as house rent and the rest is needed for my food. It is a struggle," she said. She had won silver in the Junior Championship held in Gujarat and stood fourth in Junior World Athletics Championship held in Kenya in 2021.
Fittingly, it was her father who had encouraged Sireesha to take up athletics when she was 14 years. "This is my first medal in the Khelo India Games after a not so good show in the first Khelo Games." She had won a gold medal in the Junior National Championship in Tirupati in 2018. Sireesha is also being trained by Ramesh in Hyderabad. Eighteen-year-old S Pallavi won a gold medal in Girls 64 kg weightlifting. She is the daughter of a mason and hails from Kondavelagada in Vizianagaram district.
Together, they overcame all the odds, with her father Laxmi Naidu working extra hours for her daughter's diet.
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