For Sreya, life’s a sprint as she juggles her life between sports and kathakali

KOCHI: Competing in the junior girls’ category, Sreya R from St Joseph’s GHSS, Alappuzha emerged as the fastest female athlete of the Kerala State Schools’ Sports Meet. She outperformed girls in the senior category in the 100m race at the Maharaja’s College Stadium here on Friday.

Sreya completed the junior girls’ dash in 12.54 seconds, while Ananya Suresh of SAI, Thiruvananthapuram finished second with a time of 12.58 seconds. The timings clocked by the two were better than the one achieved by the gold medal winner in the senior girls’ category, Rahna Raghu.

Sreya had earlier won a silver in the junior girls’ 400m race on Thursday.

A standard X student who excels in both sports and art, Sreya practises Kathakali regularly. “I had a Kathakali performance at the Kalarcode temple in Alappuzha a day before the 400m race and was not able to give my best. But for this race, I was well prepared and was optimistic of a good outcome," said Sreya, who trains at Leo XIII HSS, Alappuzha's mud track as her school lacks proper facilities.

“I practice my running techniques from morning 5.30 to 7.30. Then I attend classes from 9 to 5 in the evening. After school, I go for Kathakali practice. On Saturdays, I go to Pala Municipal Stadium to train on the synthetic track,” explained Sreya on how she juggles between art and sports training besides her studies.

Answaf misses record

In the senior girls’ 100m, Rahna from GV Raja Sports School clocked 12.62 seconds to finish first. In the senior boys’ 100m category, Answaf K Asharaf (10.81 seconds) from St Stephen’s HSS, Keerampara claimed gold, falling short of the state record by 0.11 seconds.

J Nivedkrishna of GHSS, Chittur, Palakkad (10.98 seconds) and Devapriya Shaibu of CHS Calvary Mount, Idukki (13.17 seconds) secured victories in the junior boys and sub-junior girls 100m events respectively. The only record on Friday in athletics came from Jeena Basil of Mar Basil in the senior girls’ pole vault. She cleared a height of 3.43m.

In the junior girls’ pole vault, Amal Chithra KS (2.90m) of Ideal HSS, Kadakassery lifted the gold. Sefania Nittu of Mar Basil, whose pole broke during the event, won silver with an effort of 2.80m.