KOLKATA: The first thing you notice about Swapna Burman is the bubbly giggle. Almost every sentence is followed by the giggle that puts people around at ease.
The Asian Games gold-winning heptathlete, who recently retained her Federation Cup title, is back at training at SAI's Eastern India complex here. This time, she has the Commonwealth Games podium in sight.
"My target is to finish among the top three and I think I can do it," she told TOI on Tuesday, just before starting the evening's training under her coach Subhash Sarkar. "I am quite motivated this time," she exuded.
That stands in contrast to her position about six months ago, when, dogged by injuries, Swapna had declared she had decided to retire. The announcement had come just after she was won the high jump gold at the National Open in Warangal. "I was quite frustrated at that stage," she said. "Injuries were having their effect and I just did not know what to do."
However, once back in Kolkata, Swapna was persuaded to change her mind by her coach and support staff. "They believed I still had a lot to give to athletics, so I decided to continue," she said.
"After all, athletics is my life, what else can I do? A lot depends on my success in athletics. My family looks up to me. The budding athletes from North Bengal get in- spired by me. Injuries are part of life and I have to keep fighting on," the girl from Jalpaiguri said.
Having started off as a high jumper, Swapna admit- ted that her short stature wasn't helping her. "Experts told me to switch to heptathlon, which meant I had to learn a few new things, " she said. Although Bengal has a tradition of producing quality heptathletes like Soma Biswas and Sushmita Singha Roy, Swapna was never quite inspired by them. "It was good to have peers, but it was not because of them that I took up this sport," she added. "Soon, I was doing pretty well, so I stuck on."
The Asian Games gold in Jakarta 2018 came at a personal best of 6 026 points. " My aim now is to cross the 6000mark again," she said. "I am aware that people say the Asian Games performance was a one-off thing. I would love to prove them wrong by repeating it."
Pandemic has taken its toll, so has a stubborn knee injury. She had to rework he r preferences and has improved a lot in the javelin since returning to training after the pandemic.
The facilities at SAI have helped a lot. "We made a special case for her to open up our facilities so that Swapna could start training," SAI Eastern Region director Vineet Kumar said.
"Since she is our best bet for medals, we want to extend all help." Coach Sarkar is sure the gritty girl can win more laurels. Having overcome her bout of depression, the 25-year-old Swapna has her mojo back.
