She is one of those very few Indian athletes who has excelled in both sports and academies with ease. The 23-year-old archer V. Jyothi Surekha has a rich haul of 38 international medals including seven in World Cups and three in World championships besides being a graduate in Engineering and also Business Administration (MBA).
And now despite getting lot of time in what she says has also been the toughest challenge of her life – staying at home because of lockdown – Surekha is not keen to switch over from her favourite compound bow category which is not an Olympic event.
“I don’t think it is appropriate for me to switch my category at this stage of my career when I am really doing well in compound category,” says Surekha in a chat with
Sportstar on Wednesday.
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“When I am not sure how successful I can be, I don’t want to experiment and more so when I am really doing well in compound bow category. Doesn’t matter even if it is not in the Olympics,” she insists.
“Yes, things certainly look gloomy and the future is definitely uncertain. I really feel sorry for all those fellow archers who are Olympics hopefuls. It is going to be really tough on them even in the post-Covid-19 scenario as it takes quite long to return to regular training after this kind of a break,” Surekha says.
It has been a disappointing phase for Surekha as the three World Cups scheduled in April have been postponed to August but now, even that is uncertain.
“Luckily, I was able to train for the first one month at Gokaraju Gangaraju Sir’s archery facility on River Krishna bank in Vijayawada before the spread of virus meant more restrictions confining me to home completely,” says Surekha, who is also the BPCL executive officer.
“For me, training is not a problem since I do it alone don’t need anyone else to be with me. But, I really feel sorry for all those athletes who need a team to be with them to stay fit – mentally and physically,” she says.
Surekha is also trying her hand in cooking the lockdown period.
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