Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts

Swimmer Sayani Ghosh leaves Bengal for Goa due to poor infrastructure

Promising Bengal swimmer Sayani Ghosh left her state to go to Goa and train due to lack of infrastructure.

By Sujata Sarkar

Kolkata, June 21: Sayani Ghosh is the only female swimmer from Bengal to have clinched gold medals at the SAF Games last year.

Sayani fights poverty, abuses to pursue Olympic dreamSayani fights poverty, abuses to pursue Olympic dream

Still she has not got a job. The 19-year old swimmer who lives in Bally in Howrah district does not have even a swimming pool there.

Sayani Ghosh (left)

She has been training at a pond, adjacent to her home for the last eight years. Her father has a tea stall. Her mother works as a maidservant.

Fighting against such odds Sayani has shined only due to tremendous determination and a perfect guidance from her coach, former national champion Surajit Banerjee.

Banerjee who lives in Bangalore send his student advisory messages and video recording of great swimmers' training schedule.

Sayani said: “I have saved money for last one year and finally bought a mobile phone so that I can watch all the video clippings, sent by Sir."

Even after winning gold medals in 200-meter butterfly and breaststroke Sayani has not yet received the Rs 2 lakh cash incentive that was promised by the Swimming Federation of India (SFI).

She has recently left West Bengal and is training at Goa. Speaking from Goa, she quipped: “It has not been possible for me to continue training at that pond in Bally.

"Following advises from my Sir, I have come here and training at a modern swimming pool. How can I better my timing by practicing at the pond?

"Above all, there is no modern gym where I can do weight training. If I had sometime gone to local ground for running, the local boys forced me to stop that saying that they would be playing football.

"Naturally, my sir instructed me to leave Bengal for Goa and following his effort I have been admitted to a club where everything is modern and scientific."

The secretary of West Bengal Swimming Association Shanti Das also did not oppose. He said: “It is true that we have failed to provide required infrastructure for the talented swimmers. Naturally they will leave the state."

OneIndia News

Story first published: Tuesday, August 22, 2017, 12:22 [IST]
Other articles published on Aug 22, 2017