Asiad: Rickshaw-puller’s daughter wins Gold

JAKARTA/KOLKATA: All night, her jaw throbbed with pain. It was so excruciating that Swapna Barman considered pulling out on the final day of the Asian Games heptathlon, where she trailed Wang Qingling of China. The gum infection — too many chocolates, she said — made the task of 32 points seem a mighty ordeal.
On Wednesday, the 21-year-old daughter of a rickshaw-puller and a tea-picker won India’s first heptathlon gold in the Asian Games, working her way through the seven events spread out over two days. Barman, with a bandage on her jaw and her now-famous 12 toes encased in special shoes, took on the pain and Qingling during the last three events of the heptathlon — long jump, javelin and 800m.
She had completed the other four events — 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m — on Tuesday. For the Rajbongshi girl from Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, winning has always been a journey through pain.
Her feet would not fit into regular shoes, but she had to squash her toes in, the pain exacerbated when she landed after jumps. The family struggled to fund her sports training, until scouts spotted her and she picked up scholarships, including sponsorship from Rahul Dravid.

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