A 16-year-old girl from downtown is the only girl from Srinagar district who has participated in the recently held J&K Athletics Championship held in Jammu. The junior athlete has proved her mettle by securing gold. Besides, she has also won four more gold medals in the last two weeks.
Sara Naqash (16) has participated in five events in the last two weeks and has secured five golds.
According to the 16-year-old athlete, she won her most recent gold medal in Jammu. She also won four gold medals, two each in Srinagar and Gulmarg.
Speaking to Rising Kashmir, Sara said she has participated in various sports activities in the past and has won numerous medals. She stated that she is taking part in sports activities across the Kashmir division and has also won short races.
Inspired by Usain Bolt she said, “I have watched him since I was a child and have a desire to break a record.”She continued, “I am working hard to reach the Olympics,” and added, “I will continue to work hard to reach this level and will represent my country at an international level.”
At the age of 8 she started taking part in these sports activities at her school. She continued, “It was our school that organised a race event, and after taking part in the event, I came to know about my abilities.”
Since then, I have been continuously taking part in short-distance as well as long-distance races, Sara added.
In her initial stage, the young athlete has faced problems as people living around her did not know about this field. However, it was her father who stood by her side always.
“I was just 10 when my father took me to participate in a race held in Srinagar, and I was the first winner of the same race.”
Here, the facilities for this game are not available, not even a coach for instructions. We don’t have a proper track for practice. Just recently, a track was made at Awantipora, but it’s 30 km away. For me, it’s not possible to travel there every day. I practised at various grounds, and every ground is used for football and not maintained.
After all of my training issues, I met a JK Adventure Sports Club, who are also athletes.
I contacted them and joined them for my daily session. Thanks to their help, I was able to progress in my field.Right now, I’m preparing for nationals and hoping to make significant progress as the season progresses to reach Olympics,” she added.
