At 14, Shaik Husna Sameera is on a different mission – to beat her own world record by playing non-stop for 20 hours with 20 opponents lined up against her. Far away from the madding crowds and the deafening noise of the typical Hyderabad traffic, this young carrom champion is engaged in an exciting competition at the Yoga Hall of the LB Stadium tennis complex since Friday evening.
Sameera, an Intermediate student of Sri Gayathri Junior College, holds the world record of playing carrom non-stop for 18 hours, 18 minutes and 18 seconds in Vizag in 2014.
Now, Sameera, whose best in a national championship is a final appearance in the sub-juniors category, is attempting a 20-hour barrier and to her delight some of the guests who lined up at the start included Dronacharyas S.M. Arif, Ismail Baig, Arjuna Awardees Mir Khasim Ali and P.V. Ramana and Ravi Kiran, principal of Sri Gayathri College.
“I want to be different from the rest by not just competing and winning titles. I am inspired by so many champions from the State, especially Hyderabad in carrom,” she says.
“No doubt, my dream is to be a world champion one day,” she remarks even while taking a very brief break. “Winning or losing doesn’t matter here,” she insists.
Not surprisingly, six qualified referees are officiating the whole event to ensure that it has the right credentials to be certified for the world record.
Interestingly, the Vizag-born girl is multi-talented having won meritorious awards in calligraphy and speed mathematics, besides being conferred with the Telangana Bala Ratna.
Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Neeraj Sampathy, president of Andhra Carrom Association, this event is also expected to give a major fillip to the sport. In fact, the city produced the first ever World Cup champion in any sport when S. Appoorwa won the women’s singles title. Appoorwa, along with the many-times national champion P. Nirmala, has been a source of inspiration.
