Back to reality: Sprinter Asra unfazed by lack of recognition after 2019 SAG heroics

Sprinter talks experience of running 400m race, future of girls in athletics

KARACHI: "I'm just going, I’m going home with my first international medals," Pakistan's former fastest woman Sahib-i-Asra says as she waits for the bus to come to take her home to Faisalabad.

The 21-year-old returned to Pakistan after competing at the 2019 South Asian Games (SAG) in Nepal with the rest of the athletics squad on Tuesday. At the games she not only won the first international medal for herself but helped in improving the country's tally in athletics alone with three medals — one bronze in 400m sprint, a silver in 4x400m relay and another bronze in 4x100 relay.

Pakistan beat India in squash as 2019 South Asian Games conclude

After the 2004 South Asian Games where Pakistan had gotten 25 medals in athletics (track and field) events, this is the first time that the country made an impression with 13 medals now, including five gold medals. Pakistan were not even on the table for athletics in the last edition in India in 2016.



For Asra, the overall performance of the country’s athletes, including the Olympic qualification by javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, can be considered as a sort of revival.

Waiting at the bus stop, waiting for things to change, Asra believes the country needs to look at the athletes who are doing their best even with limited resources.

Asra meanwhile describes running a 400m sprint as a surreal experience, a spiritual one too.

"It is like you ran across the Earth in a short amount of time, you feel everything, 400m is the toughest competition for me I feel, tougher than 200m. It requires more energy, more motivation out of an athlete," Asra told The Express Tribune. "I’m just glad the event became my saving grace.”

Ideally, in any other country a medal winner may have gotten more attention than the track and field medallists get in Pakistan, but Asra believes that the two-hour bus ride back home is a trip back to reality.

"We were told that a minister will see us, so we stayed in Lahore over night, but they didn't so now I'm going home," said Asra. "It [the medals] is an honour for me, I know we may not get the same recognition that the female athletes get in India or Sri Lanka, but I want to hope for better from this point onward. I improved the record for us in 400m; this is my first international medal, so I'm happy. I know my parents are happy too.

"May be if this was some other country, things would have been different after winning medals internationally. But I can tell that at least the junior athletes, who may have seen the performances and the results, can now dream bigger. We may inspire the younger athletes with five gold medals now."

Pakistan beat Bhutan, Maldives on SAG medals table

Asra won bronze in 400m when she clocked 54.58 seconds falling behind Sri Lanka (53.40) at the top and India (54.31).

But it was also the 200m sprint that she was eyeing for a medal before the 400m sprint.

"I knew I could've won a medal at 200m too, India and Sri Lanka didn't send their best athletes either. I saw many juniors in their contingent too, but I made a mistake, there was a 30 minute break between the final heat and the semi-final and I just didn't recover on time.

"I realised at that point that I need to get an individual medal at 400m because it was my aim, a do-or-die situation for me. When you fall back you need to find a way to bounce back too, so 400m was my redemption in a way,” explained Asra.

She added that her aim had been to chase a spot in Olympics too.

"I want to know if I still have a chance at Olympics. I want to be there in Tokyo too, like every athletes, but I can say I want to be there in a fair way. I know my talent is valuable, but I need resources, money to compete abroad, better kit, shoes and everything, so I'm trying to at least train for a world-class event. So, medals at the SAG is a confidence booster in this quest," said Asra who represented Pakistan in Doha in October as well.

She added that her focus internationally will be on 200m and 400m sprints now while the results she got at SAG was due to the coaching she would get over the internet by a Nigerian trainer Ayodele Solaja, and help from Interloop with Musadaq Zulqarnain who have been sponsoring her for a while.



"It has been two years that I am getting training from Solaja, it is through internet because we don't have professional coaches like that in Pakistan, and now I got a sponsorship from Interloop too, so that helped. I know I need to win something in other international events to get better sponsorships too, like even for the shoes," said Asra.

Domestically she competes for Wapda, but as an athlete she understands that departmental system does not serve the athletes in a professional manner.

"The department helps, we get a monthly salary, but there are no bonuses if we win international medals. It is not a professional set up like athletes get abroad and in Pakistan there is a long way to go. There is a lot of talent and with SAG performances we have proved that," concluded Asra.

The youngster believes that the year ended well for her, even though she lost her fastest woman of Pakistan title to Najma Parveen in November at the National Games in Peshawar. However, she urged that the training for deserving athletes, especially women is needed badly.

The Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) has announced that they will be sending five athletes, all-males to China for training, but there are no women athletes in the list so far.

"I wish they change their mind on this, and send girls too," said Asra. "Next year there are events and I know I want to give my best for Pakistan, I want to train too."