Stuck in reverse
ACTUALLY, it was a Catch-22 situation for Dola as she dealt with the World Cup win hype. For a sport desperately needing recognition and perpetually suffering cash crunch, stage appearances to collect prize money cheques are as important as spending time on the field. Despite sacrificing training sessions for felicitation functions, where she collected about Rs 15 lakhs, Dola isn’t quite self-sufficient in this surprisingly expensive sport. Ahead of her second Olympic appearance, she still hasn’t found any sustained long-term corporate assistance. The Korean bow that she uses costs about Rs 1 lakh. The American arrows have a price tag of Rs 1,600 each.
“After winning the World Cup, I had hoped that my sponsorship problems would finally be solved. I got to know that some corporate houses were showing interest in me. But till now, I haven’t received any concrete proposal for sponsorship,” she laments.
Still, the lack of sponsorship is a mild niggle. Instead, she is focused on a good show at Beijing. “The new format at the selection trials was tough for all of us. We had to hit 70 meters, 16 times. But the event at the Olympics will be on the old format, where one has to hit 70m twice in the qualifiers. I feel if I can maintain a score of around 330-plus, which I was scoring last November, I will get good results. More importantly, if I give my country a lead in the opening match of the team championship, you never know, we might bag a medal,” she says re-listing herself among India’s ‘few good men/women’ in Beijing.

... contd.