Sapna eyes gold at 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships

Sapna Kumari who recently won gold for the country in the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games held at Colombo, Sri Lanka, will be representing the country in the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships scheduled at Japan in June and then will show her skills at World Under-20 Championships organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) scheduled for July, at Finland.

She bagged the gold in 100 meter hurdle with a timing of 14.19 sec at SAF.

Tata Steel's Feeder centre at West Bokaro under Ramgarh district, which offers training in archery, athletics and football to local children, has every reason to be proud. More than 20 candidates of this centre are now representing Jharkhand at National and International fora and bringing laurels to the State.

One such name is Sapna. She started her sports career in 2012 when she first attended the Feeder Centre run by Tata Steel. She was groomed here for an year after which she was facilitated to join the Sports Authority of India in 2013. Since then, she has not looked back. With a total of 11 medals of national level in her bag, she is aiming high at International events and with the first international Gold at SAF games has added to her spirit.

Speaking about her career and journey, Sapna Says, “I have a single dream to get Gold for India in 2020 Olympics and I am not thinking of anything else at this point of time. All these championships are part of a journey for me which will end at Olympics.” Expressing his happiness on the success of the Sapna Kumari, Sanjay Kumar Singh, general manager (coal), Tata Steel said: “I am delighted to see the success of Sapna and wish her all the best for her upcoming events at international arena. At Tata Steel, we consider sports as a way of life. The Feeder centre not only provides training to the sports aspirants but also gives them a hope to aim high and achieve success in the field of sports."

Sapna’s father Shyam Sunder Singh is an employee of Tata Steel and has been supporting her daughter by all means possible.

Like Sapna, many youngsters groomed at the feeder centre facility in West Bokaro have bagged top slots in various national-level events in the past years, bringing laurels to the State. One-of-its-kind in the district, this centre offers facilities and training to budding sportsmen and facilitates them to join other State and National level coaching centres like Sports Authority of India, Army Sports Institutes in Pune and Jabalpur and other such institutes of repute. On an average, every year three candidates make it to these national level institutes.

Some candidates are also selected to join the Tata Steel run academies like Tata Football Academy, Tata Athletics Academy and Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur where they are nurtured further to excel.