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Haryana has fast emerged as the hub of sporting talent and with more than half the sportspersons having qualified for London Olympic belonging to Haryana, the state’s significance has increased manifold. Many top players of the
country, who form the Indian contingent, hail from Haryana but the one
that will be certainly hold everyone’s attention will be discus
thrower Krishna Poonia. Krishna Poonia has crossed the ‘A’
qualification standard of 62m and won a gold at Halloween Throws Meet
at Portland, USA, to reserve a berth for herself at the London
Olympics. By becoming the first-ever woman to win a gold medal in the
2010 Commonwealth games, Poonia created history. Poonia recently set
new national record by hurling the discus to 64.76m, thereby breaking
Seema Antil’s earlier record of 64.64m. But her journey to success
hasn’t been smooth.
Unlike other sportspersons, who normally start playing at an early age, Poonia, who was born in Agroha in Hisar district of Haryana, had never even thought about sport as a career in her initial years. It was only when her aunt Prem Rani took her to Loharu village with her that she made Poonia start the game. Later, Poonia took admission in FC College, Hisar, where she began formal training. Her career finally took off when she married international player Virender Poonia who is working with Indian Railways. Though she had decided to call it quits when she had a son, her husband motivated her to continue playing. He had confidence that she would make it big one day. And sure enough she is now a national record holder, the first ever woman to win gold for India in the Commonwealth Games and the top Indian hope in the forthcoming London Olympics. Poonia has won numerous other international medals under the guidance of her husband, who is also her coach. The other woman thrower who has qualified for the London mega event after she achieved the ‘A’ qualifying standard with, a throw of 62.60m is Seema Antil, who belongs to Sonepat, Haryana. Sponsored by the Mittal Champions Trust, Seema Antil had managed to hit a distance of 62m after seven long years and thus qualified with ‘A’ standard, which shows a remarkable improvement in her performance. In the initial years of her career, Antil was involved in a controversy after she was stripped of gold medal at the 2000 World Junior Championships. She had tested positive in the drug test for the drug pseudoephedrine. Antil did not get disheartened and continued her struggle. Her efforts were rewarded and she won a bronze medal in the next World Junior Championships in 2002. Since then she has never looked back. Antil finished after Krishna Poonia and Harwant Kaur to win a bronze in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. With both the discus throwers undergoing a rigorous training schedule in foreign countries to make a podium finish, it will be interesting to see who can bring pride for India.
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