Telangana athlete D. Srikanth, who was in Turkey during the recent turmoil, is back in Hyderabad after braving the mental agony of coming to know about the tough times his fellow athletes had gone through. “The athletics competitions were far away from the region where the attempted military coup took place. So, we were absolutely safe. And our competitions were held as per schedule the same day the gymnastics competitions were cancelled for security reasons,” Srikanth, a student of Telangana Sports School (Hakimpet) near here, informed on arrival on Wednesday night.
K. Narasaiah, Officer on Special Duty, TSS, said that he was glad that Srikanth remained unfazed by the flurry of activity in Turkey around the same time and could focus on his athletics events. “This shows his mental toughness and the ability to stay focussed once on the track,” he added. On his part, Srikanth, a native of Miryalguda in Nalgonda district, said though he was not directly in the ‘line of firing’ of the turmoil, he was definitely tense as the other gymnastic Priyanka Sagar from Hyderabad was much closer to the scene of trouble.
“Yes, it was a huge sigh of relief that we are safe and back,” he exclaimed. Mr. Narasaiah said that the safe return was possible because of the timely intervention of Union Government which told the Embassy officials there in Turkey to ensure safety of the Indians mattered a lot.
