For Hirur Manjunath Jyothi, hailing from a small town, Hirur near Chitradurga, the Delhi Commonwealth Games promises to be the biggest step in her career. The transition from a sleepy-town girl to being the country’s best sprinter has been stunning but deserving in all respects. And as she says, it is a tribute to the support and unconditional love showered on her by her family.
“My participation in the Games is a reflection of my family’s support and dream of seeing me as a good athlete. Although I’m training in Ukraine now, my father calls me everyday. He misses me a lot and most often, he chokes with emotions. But before hanging up, he always says, ‘do the country proud’. Even my husband Srinivas dreams of me winning international medals and that is what I have set out to achieve,” said the country’s top sprinter.
The Canara Bank employee will be seen in action in the 100m, 200m and the 4x00m relay events. Although a medal in the 100m is a hefty task, Jyothi feels she has an outside chance of a medal in the 200m event while being pretty confident that she will definitely climb the podium in the relay event.
“I know my chances of a medal in the 100m event is very thin so I’m looking at clocking my best time in that. But at the same time with a best of 23.83 seconds in 200m, I guess I stand a chance. The relay team, of course, has shaped up very well and I’m sure we will win a medal,” said Jyothi, who moved backed to her home state after representing Andhra Pradesh for a couple of years.
Jyothi also felt that training abroad has helped her grow in confidence and boost her performance.
“The training schedules are very hectic but definitely worth the effort. It has also given us a lot of exposure which is very essential for big events,” she said.
Although the focus is on the CWG currently, Jyothi is also gearing up for the Asian Games in November where she feels she has a realistic chance of a medal. And for that to happen, the 29-year-old is hoping she can remain injury-free over the next two defining months of her career.