Sharath Kamal’s qualification for the Rio Olympics is the culmination of a battle with injury and self-doubt spread over a year.
To be precise, 50 weeks ago, Sharath suffered a serious hamstring injury during the World championship match on April 29 and since then, spent a year in rehabilitation and training.
He returned to competition only in December and from thereon he has been keeping an eye on Olympic qualification but much depended on his body responding to the load.
Finally, a day after making the ‘cut’ at Hong Kong, Sharath took time off to share with The Hindu , his painful journey of the past year.
“I got injured on the April 29, 2015, during my second round (World championship) match. My hamstring gave way from the hip bone and it had to be stitched back to the hip bone. Post operation, I was on walking support and on a wheel-chair for six weeks.
In safe hands“Normally it is only two months of rehab but it got extended by another month. Finally I could start playing by October but actively compete only by December.
“Thanks to my German club Borussia Dusseldorf — everything was taken care by them from the operation to the rehab — I was in very safe hands.
“So when I started with the rehab, the main aim was to be totally fit for the Olympic Games keeping in mind my world ranking to help me qualify. For that, I had to play my best in the World championship in Malaysia in February.
“I did extremely well and India won gold in the second division. My ranking slowly bounced back to 61 — normally players up to 80 in the world ranking would qualify for the Games.”
Looking back at last week’s Asian Olympic qualification in Hong Kong, Sharath said, “When playing against (Anthony) Amalraj, I was ahead 3-1 and later in the fifth set, I was up 10-8 when I sprained my back during a long rally. My back got so stiff that I could not bend to serve. I lost the match from there.
“Carrying that injury, I won the next match and extended Soumyajit Ghosh to seven sets. That night, for me, the tournament was over as I could not even walk.
“However, next morning, all the top players pulled out as they would qualify on the strength of their world rankings. Their decision made my position a bit shaky and I decided to play. Though I was injured, I saw a very good chance to qualify from Asia.
“I played Saudi Arabia’s Ali Alkhadrawi and he extended me to the narrowest of margins before I won 11-9 in the final set. That victory gave me some confidence. Next day, against Iran’s Noshad Alamiyan, I started well but was down 1-3.
“At that time, I thought, ‘God, if I don’t win this one, I need to play another match this evening to qualify.’ I told myself to play more aggressively and it paid off.”
Finally, Sharath won 12-14, 11-6, 3-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-6 and booked a ticket to Rio.
