Rachana won the silver by pledging her mom’s gold

Team Udayavani, Jan 16, 2019, 7:41 AM IST

Mangaluru: “I had sent our daughter to this sport by pledging my wife’s gold. For more money, I took a loan from well-wishers. Now, if my daughter is celebrating her winning the silver, I have the feeling of accomplishment,” says Radhakrishna, father of Rachana from Karavali, who won the silver medal in the swimming competition at Khelo india.

Rachana is the daughter of the couple S Radhakrishna Rao and Sumitra Rao from Derebail in Mangaluru. She took part in the 50 mts breast stroke swimming competition for the under-17 division organised at the Khelo India swimming competition taking place at Pune and won the silver medal, making Karavali proud through her achievement. She played an important role in Karnataka team’s winning of the gold medal in the 100 mts 4/100 medley relay through breast stroke swimming. Besides she also won the bronze medal in the 100 mts individual breast stroke division.

Rachana was attracted towards water since her childhood. Hence, her parents joined her for the summer swimming camp at Mangala swimming pool. Her trainers encouraged her for additional training. But, her parents had to take a loan to send her for a state level competition.

Of the two people who were selected from Mangaluru to compete at the Khelo India competition last year included Rachana. Currently, Rachana is getting training at the BSRC swimming pool in Bengaluru.

Rachana is pursuing 9^th std studies at Ramakrishna school. She is being trained by the chief trainer at Mangala swimming club Lokaraj Vittal and assistant trainer M Shivananda Gatti, Pundalik Kharvi, Shishir S Gatti and Subham besides, Jayaraj and Jagan from Bengaluru.

Father, a taxi driver

Radhakrishna Rao is a tourist taxi driver. He was finding it difficult to support his daughter’s sports through his daily income. His daughter used to win several sports competitions  by wearing her old swimming dress itself. Setting money for the meet, she bought a new dress, remembers Radhakrishna Rao.

Encouragement is essential

“More that Rs 50,000 is required to send our daughter to a national level competition. But the government provides only Rs 10,000 has an encouragement. It is difficult to prepare for the competition with this money. If the government provides more encouragement, it will be possible for our daughter to achieve even more,” said Sumitra Rao, Rachana’s mom

Aim is to win the gold

“I am happy to have won the silver medal at the Khelo India competition. In the future, I’ll compete at the international level competitions and win the gold medal,” says S R Rachana Rao, swimmer

Article by Naveen Bhat Ilanthil translated into English by Aaron Dmello