Shoe company to design Swapna’s special footwear
Swapna Barman, who has six toes on each foot, is to receive special custom-made shoes after a company boss was touched to hear of the pain she suffered while running in the heptathlon.
Swapna, who became the first Indian heptathlete to win gold at the Asian Games on Thursday, spoke of how her rare deformity caused agony with each step in her final event, the 800m. A government-run enterprise in Chennai has come forward to help Barman get customised shoes. “After she won the gold I saw on TV that she had a deformity in her feet,” said Sudhanshu Mani, general manager of Integral
Coach Factory, a railway coach manufacturer that also funds training for athletes.
“We are in touch with Nike. We are waiting for her to come back so that we can get the customised shoes made for her,” he said, explaining that his company would bear the cost.
Beating an Olympic boxing champion requires something more that simply throwing power-packed punches. On Saturday, the penultimate day of the Asian Games, Amit Panghal — the lone Indian left standing in the boxing arena after Vikas Krishan pulled out on Friday due to a deep cut over his left eye — showed he was not just a boxer with brawn but one who had the mental strength and technique to counter the best in the business.
The Jakarta Expo Centre was buzzing with Indian expatriates hours before Amit took to the ring to face Olympic gold medallist Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in the light flyweight final.
As the public address system boomed to signal the start of the bout — which was the first of the day — nervous energy gripped the arena. The next nine minutes passed in something of a blur. At the end of it, Amit had emerged champion, winning the bout 3-2.
Dusmatov was always expected to be a tough customer and Amit was billed as the underdog ahead of the bout. But Amit’s coach Santiago Nieva had faith in the abilities of his ward.
The sure-footedness was evident from the first round itself when Amit took on the aggressive Uzbek with the alertness of a leopard. Amit’s nimbleness helped him counter the Uzbek’s left hook and the counter-attack did quite a bit of damage early, not so much physically, but mentally.
Dusmatov, who thrives on the gains from the first round, was not able to settle into a rhythm. Every time the Uzbek cocked or ducked, Amit instantaneously knew the sledge-hammer was coming and he would drift out of harm’s way, regrouping for the counter-attack.
The trend continued in all the three rounds and though Amit had a slight setback, when a couple of left-right combinations breached his defence, a left hook from the Indian in the second round left the Uzbek wobbly.
Round three was more of a slugfest but with Amit blocking most of Dusmatov’s punches, the Uzbek was rapidly losing his rhythm and control over his rival even as Amit’s counterpunches kept damaging not just the reputation of the opponent but also turned the tide in his favour.
“Dusmatov comes at you with a lot of aggression in the first round and the best way to negate it is to parry his lead hook and then counter-attack,” said coach Nieva who hails from Sweden. He added that the victory was one of the best by an Indian in terms of
NEW DELHI: JAKARTA: