M A I N   N E W S

Indian-origin eves among top 10 at Sydney
By Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

SYDNEY: If Karnam Malleswari did India proud by winning the lone medal for the country of one billion people, two other girls, representing the USA and Canada, won accolades for their parents of Indian origin by finishing among the top 10 in their respective competitions during the first Olympic Games of the new millennium.

These girls are 26-year-old Rajyana Shah and 31-year-old Kamini Jain. Incidentally, both come from water sports — rowing and canoeing/kayaking.

Twentysix-year-old Rajyana Shah is the daughter of world famous vascular surgeon, Dr Dhiraj Shah of New York. Born and brought up in the USA, Raj Shah, as she is called by her friends, is a student of California State University.

In the rowing women’s eight final, Raj was a member of the US team that finished sixth with Romania, Holland and Canada taking the gold, silver and bronze medals. While the winners clocked 6:06.44, Raj and her team were slightly slower and clocked 6:16.87.

Raj, who wanted to be a tennis player, had to be content with water sports as the tennis facilities at Albany in New York where she was born and brought up by her Indian parents were not available.

Raj has represented the USA in several world level events and is one of top women rowers of the country. She was perhaps the only participant born of Indian parents to represent the USA in the Games.

The story of Kamini Jain of Canada is a little different. Her father, who belongs to Oil Industry and is at present settled at Calgary in Alberta province of Canada, is married to a British citizen. Kamini was born in Tripoli. The last time she visited India was more than10 years ago.

Her paternal uncles continue to live in the ancestral town of her father, Dehra Dun, where she says she has some cousin brothers and sisters.

In Sydney, she represented Canada in canoeing/kayaking and qualified for the final in the canoe/kayak sprint 4x500 metres and finished ninth. Her team could not return its best timing to finish ninth in the final with a timing of 1:39.566 while the winning team of Germany took 1:34.532 minutes to complete the race. She, like Rajyana Shah, had the consolation of making it to the final round and finishing among the top 10 at the Olympic Games.

The third woman participant with Indian parentage was Shanta Ghosh. Representing Germany in 4x400 metres relay, Shanta had the misfortune of elimination in the first round. German girls competed against the queen of the meet Marion Jones and finished fourth behind the USA, Cuba and Belarus. Shanta was born and brought up in Germany and is studying psychology.

Another girl of Indian origin who participated in Sydney Olympics was Supra Singhal. Representing Uganda she took part in the 100 metre free style swimming but finished a poor 52nd.

In the men’s section, besides those representing Canada and Malaysia in field hockey , only one player of Indian origin or born of Indian parents took part in individual events. He was Andrew Kooner of Tecumseh, Ontario in Canada.

Twentyone-year-old Andrew, who was born in a Sikh family in England, is currently the Canadian champion. In Sydney, he won his opening round bout against an Algerian but lost the second round to an experienced Thai boxer in a close fight.