Commonwealth Games 2010: Pressure worked for Indian athletes as Women’s Relay wins Gold
After bagging a gold medal in the women’s 4x400 Relay, Ashwini Akkunji, the team member of the Indian side, told a press conference that they were under pressure to finish it off first in the 2010 Commonwealth Games as there was huge support from the home
crowd for them. The team India for Women’s Relay had earlier made it to the silver four years ago in Melbourne.
Ashwini said that the coach along with the team members were quite clear in their minds right from the beginning that they had to either make it to the gold or silver, and for this they had really worked hard. She added that defeat wasn't at all an option.
The gold medallist maintained that if they had not achieved a gold or silver medal before the home crowd, it would have left them really disappointed. So, performing better than Melbourne had been their focus and they had worked really hard. The local federation,
in this regard, facilitated them well as it afforded all the expenses of sending them abroad for training.
Akkunji also thanked the local crowd and said that it provided them extra motivation to perform well; however, she accepted that it also put a sort of pressure upon her team members to outdo their rivals. She looked satisfied while stating that India had
defeated the top athletes of Australia and England in the game, and that was enough to reveal the Indian potential before the world.
“It is rather satisfying for us that we have beaten up the teams from Australia and England which are considered among the top athletes in the world”, said Ashwini, who took her team to the lead in the third leg. She further added that it was the best memory
of her career.
While shedding some light on their training and preparations, the athlete remarked that the two training stints at Ukraine had helped her team a lot in cultivating the required competitiveness. Their first Ukraine visit was from 28th May 2010 to 27th July
2010 while the second visit was made a few days before the start of Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. She was of the view that these two training sessions had finally paid off.
According to Aishwini, her team now had its eyes on the gold at the upcoming Asian Games, which would start next month. In reply to a query, she said that the only thing she and her team members feared for the upcoming event was complacency but if they were
to perform well in the Asian Games, they could not afford giving room to complacency as taking their rivals lightly could lead to their disappointing performance.
Aishwini thinks that China and Tajikistan could give them some tough time at the Asian Games as, being the hosts, Chinese would surely be preparing well for the competition so the Indian team had to be fully prepared.
Meanwhile, the Indian team's coach, R S Sidhu said that bagging gold was a progression from the silver at Melbourne but the girls truly deserved it as they had really worked hard.
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