On the dusky evenings when a few college couples chirped under the shades and some others sat in the corners of cool bars sipping fresh juice, a different set met — on the tracks of hardship — and sweated it out.

She would eye him during warm ups and he would return a look while jogging around and the muddy ground stood witness to their blossoming love affair.

Unlike the many romances that flourished in lengthy corridors or closed cabinets, theirs evolved on the tracks and fields, mostly under the watchful eye of the setting sun.

So when the Valentine’s Day comes around, those of them who met, loved and married through sports and still remain loyal to both, are remembered with love.

It was last October, Vibin George and Divya Joseph smashed a volley of love into each other’s heart by tying the nuptial knot; and until now both have been a busy couple shuttling around the country, taking part in various volleyball tournaments.

On a train from Tamil Nadu to Kerala, Vibin George and Divya Joseph spoke about their love and marriage on the eve of Valentine’s Day. “It was four years ago that we met during a volleyball tournament. Tournaments were aplenty and we were able to meet soon after.

Though we had known each other well through tournaments, I was the one who proposed it and she agreed outright. After that, we asked our parents, who never denied our wishes,” said Vibin. Then they married in October 2011 and have lived a life of perfect volleyball couple. “Divya still represents the state team that were runners up in the recently held Nationals at Raipur.

She can play until she wants to,” says Vibin who won the championship as part of the Kerala men’s team in the same tourney.

Both of them were in Tamil Nadu, participating in an all-India championship and have bagged each other a perfect valentine’s day gift. Vibin was part of the team that won the men’s title while Divya was part of the women team that grabbed the runners up. These volleyball tournaments are keeping them together most often as Vibin is employed with Bharat Petroleum, Kochi, while Divya works at KSEB
Thiruvananthapuram.

Renjith Maheswary and V.S. Sureka are one of the famed couple in Indian athletics. Renjith is a national record (17.07 m) holder in triple jump and Sureka has set the best mark in women’s pole vault (4.08 m) in the country.

They knew each other for long, though the sweet-tickle feeling called ‘love’ crept into their hearts only during their national camping days. They got engaged in November 2007, but it was a long wait until they finally united in April 2009.

“We fell in love during a training and like any couple our days of romance were sweet,” says Renjith before bursting into laughter as Sureka walked toward him with their kid, to hear if her hubby was
spilling too much beans.

“We had to wait for more than a year to marry after our engagement due to the Olympics, but those days were even sweeter. She is back on tracks and we are still in love as ever,” says Renjith.

They are now settled in Bangalore; and, after a long gap, Sureka has restarted training. She won gold in the inter-railways meet recently.