By A Sports Correspondent

CHANDIGARH: She is a 1 5-yr-old school girl and her one ambition in life is to fill in the void left by P.T. Usha and PT. Usha is her idol not merely because of athletics. Jaspreet Bajwa also shares a common birthdate with the Golden Girl May 20.

 One might dismiss the idea of emulating P-T. Usha as merely the pipe-dream of a Chandigarh school girl But Jaspreet (Mona as she prefers) took a major leap in that direction in the recently held ITC Inter-Zone Juniors Athletics Meet held in Delhi on December 3 and 4.

Competing with a star like Rachitic Panda who was selected in the Indian squad for the Beijing Asiad. Jaspreet won the silver in the 100 meters dash and the bronze in the 200 meters sprint. While Richia clocked 12.4 seconds for the bronze the Chandigarh girl clocked 25.6 seconds as compared to Richita’s golden run of 25.4.

 It can be seen that a split second separated Jaspreet from gold medalist Richita. That’s how she has already run on the national level. And for 15-yr-old that’s no mean achievement. In fact it was the first time she had run on a synthetic track indeed the first lime she had seen one.

 She immediately caught the eye of national selectors and observers. Lalit Bhanot secretary of the Amateur Athletics Federation of India V.P.S. Tomar S.S. Bains and Anand a Chandra Naik were impressed So was the Hinduja Foundation which sponsors budding sportspersons. In a letter to her father We Cdr J.S. Bajwa the Foundation says: We all have a feeling that given the proper duct excellent coaching and all India (exposure (she) will bring glory to India in the 1922 Junior Asiad in the 4 x 100 meters relay event™ And further that exposure in 1993 can enable her to blossom into an athlete of Asian standards before the 1994 Asiad at Hiroshima.

The Hinduja Foundation bas in short offered to sponsor Jaspreet. It has already groomed abouts dozen sportspersons including Richita Panda Bobby Aloysius Anuradha Biswal and Harjinder Singh (all athletics) Firoza Batilwala (badminton) and Balwan Singh (wrestler).

Jaspreet base path chartered out for her. It remains to be seen how she is able to balance her atheistic potential and opportunist with equally important matters like a job. Career family and so on. Mona wants to be a doctor too. One is ultimately forced to the same question asked of every budding athlete: Will she make it or will she nor?

But to get back to Jaspreet The youngster began her career three years ago at age 12. Since her father was always on the move with new postings he thought it prudent to school her through kendriya vidyalayas. After a brief stint at Chandigarh’s Sacred Heart Convent Jaspreet joined the KY at Halwara. Her games teacher Mr PS. Gill put her through inter-KV regional zonal and national athletics meets. In her first year 1987 the won the regional gold in 100m 200 ‘and 400m and the silver in high jump and the bronze in long jump. In her first KV nationals she got the silver in 200m and 400m and the next year the gold in these events plus the Best Athlete title. A year’s thence she had narrowed down her specialties to 100m and 200m alone

Mind you all this was achieved without any coaching then luckily her father got posted to Chandigarh this year. In April Jaspreet joined the Sector 47 KV. In May she went through Sports Authority of lndia (SAI) trials in the city. She was selected with flying colors and is now based in the Sector 18 SAL Girls Hostel.

 In October she appeared for the Chandigarh team trials for the North Zone Juniors Atheistic Meet and was selected. She missed the North Zone team trials in Delhi for the Inter-Zone Athletics Meet because of curfew in Chandigarh. However since she had on record 126 seconds in the 100 meters she was called t Delhi for special trials on December 1. She clocked 12.7 and was promptly selected in the North Zone team. Two days later she was competing with Richita Panda her first-ever run on synthetic tacks.

Already a lean 5-foot 6-inch Jaspreet practices in the Sector 7 sports complex under SAI coach Nirmal Singh and Shiv sir. They have been honing her hand and arm movements head position (looking forward and not down) and starts with blocks.

Jaspreet still has a long way to go to match the women’s 100 meters national record of P.T.Usha set in 1139 seconds and the 200 metres national mark set also by P-T. Usha in 23.27 seconds Years of hard work and training separate the seconds in these races.

 But she has covered a fair distance ever since her family bought a color TY for the 1982 Delhi Asiad and saw P.T Usha in action Only seven years old then she has harbored a love for the tacks ever since nurtured in part by her father a former Air Force hockey player mother Manjit a former Guru Nanak Dev University basketball player and little brother Tej Preet who has his eyes set on football.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 18, 1991