"She is a former Asian Games medallist like me,'' said Randhir Singh, the Secretary-General of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) as he introduced tennis player Manisha Malhotra (in pic) to his friends.
He then asked Manisha: "You look very fit. Why are you running around the place instead of playing?''
Well, Manisha had won the silver medal in mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi at the Busan Asian Games in 2002. Mahesh, in fact, won the doubles with Leander Paes then and had a match point in the final of the mixed doubles with Manisha.
Tired of travelling around the world, playing in tournaments round the year, Manisha quit tennis some time back. She even coached the Russian girl, Anastasia Rodianova, for some time to stay in touch with the sport. And more recently, she became an administrator at the Mittal Champions Trust, which supports athletes in a big way to help them excel.
In Doha, Manisha was busy moving from venue to venue, keeping track of her star athletes including World trap champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu. The Trust also has archers and boxers apart from Saina Nehwal (badminton), Joshna Chinappa (squash) and Nitin Mongia (sailor) under its contract.
With the shooters doing well and a couple of boxers making the semi-finals, Manisha was busy counting the number of medals won by the athletes from the Trust. She was hopeful that more medals would come from her athletes.
Comments
SHARE