For pole vaulters, the journey from their coaching base to the competitors venue is half the battle gained. Their ubiquitous poles, between 4 to five metres in size and weighing as much as 15 kilograms, could make what ought to be a routine flight or a prepare journey a harrowing expertise for these athletes.
As ladies’s nationwide document holder VS Surekha says, each journey is a problem. She sympathises with the plight of a bunch of younger athletes, together with the Open Jumps Champion within the pole vault Pavithra, who had been requested by officers to deboard a prepare final week for tying their poles on to window bars exterior the compartment.
In 2015, when Surekha reached the Delhi airport to take a flight to Wuhan for the Asian Athletics Championships she confronted an sudden hurdle.
The pole would fall off the lengthy conveyor belt on the turns. The officers instructed her the one approach the pole may very well be taken to the bags maintain of the airport was on the belt. In a repair, Surekha was in tears.
“I started crying and told them I could not compete without the poles. One official asked me if I could sit on the belt. He told me it was safe to do so,” Surekha recalled.
With no different choice, Surekha hopped onto the conveyer belt and held onto her pole because it made its approach from the first-floor to the basement the place cargo was being loaded.
“What else could I do? The belt looped around and I had to hold the pole so it didn’t fall off. I was really scared but I had to do it,” she added.
When males’s nationwide document holder Subramani Siva heard about younger athletes travelling to Salem from Thiruvananthapuram being requested to deboard at Kollam station his coronary heart went out to them. The armyman recollects an analogous expertise however he was luckier.
“I was told to deboard at Warangal with my equipment. Anyway some calls were made from the higher ups in the army and the issue was resolved,” Siva stated.
But each time he undertakes the lengthy prepare journey from Chennai to Patiala for competitions or camps, he’s frightened.
“I usually tie it on the top corner across the inside of the roof of the train so that the passengers face no hassle. These poles are very expensive and delicate. I can’t sleep properly until my pole reaches the venue without getting damaged,” Siva added.
Travelling inside the metropolis for apply can be a painful activity. Auto drivers usually refuse the journey or cost 5 instances the value, say 2016 South Asian Games (SAG) silver medallist Sonu Saini.
When she was travelling to Guwahati for the SAG, the pole was not allowed on the flight. “My friend had to stay back and bring it on the train,” Saini stated.
Surekha has skilled her valuable ‘luggage’ being delayed throughout worldwide journeys. In 2018 she travelled to Korea for an Open occasion. She was concentrating on the Asian Games qualifying mark. “Unfortunately the poles arrived at the venue after my final. I managed a medal though but couldn’t achieve the Asian Games cut. I had to write back to the federation here and they then wrote to the Korean federation who were kind enough to lend me some poles. But the poles were smaller and not stiff enough,” she recalled.
Apart from the effort throughout journey, vaulters must spend period of time explaining what they’re carrying to fellow passengers. “‘Aap log kaunse circus me hain?’ (Which circus are you part of?). I have been asked that so many times,” Surekha stated.
Fed up with unreasonable fares auto drivers cost, Devraj learnt to hold the pole on his cycle which sadly acquired stolen a couple of weeks again. (Pic: Andrew Amsan)
Tent home worker?
2019 Delhi state medallist Devraj says he’s usually mistaken for a development employee or a tent home worker. “I am tired of answering such questions now. Recently an auto driver asked me if I am carrying this “pipe” to a development website and I simply stated ‘yes’. When I’m requested questions now, I simply take my telephone out and present folks a pole vaulting video,” Devraj stated.
Fed up with unreasonable fares auto drivers cost, Devraj learnt to hold the pole on his cycle which sadly acquired stolen a couple of weeks again. “It took a lot of practice to get used to the distance I have to maintain on the road. I once rammed into a biker and he gave me an earful,” Devraj added.
Saini, 2017 University Games gold medallist, feels lack of information concerning the sport creates points. “These issues can be sorted if people take vaulting seriously. No one cares about it. I beat several international players for the silver medal in 2016 and no one knows me. If people know about us and know the sport they will treat us better,” he says.
Surekha believes the Indian railways are the lifeline of vaulting in India and says incidents of athletes being requested to deboard are very uncommon.
“The recent incident happened because the pole was tied to the window. The Indian railways are very supportive and it is the only means of travel most of our athletes have. Without the railways most athletes in the north can think of competing in the south and vice versa,” Surekha, a railways worker, stated.
Surekha nonetheless admits it’s not simple to journey with poles even on trains. “I have one sad story too. A few years back we were trying to get off, I think in Guwahati, and we had only a few minutes. We were taking the pole out through the window and the train started moving and my pole split in two.”