My Autobiography: My Bad Luck in Sports Continues in Xth too…

I have written earlier about how my dream of wearing a purple jersey and representing my school for inter-school sports event was tarnished during my 6th Std. Now, I will write how another dream of mine — someone hanging a medal around my neck for winning a sports event was tarnished during my 10th Std.

I have received medals, as early as 3rd Std. But those were for cultural activities. Inspired by Olympic prize distribution ceremony, I wanted a medal for sports. Actually, I had won the 2nd prize for long jump during 6th Std. but the school officials decided to give cups, not medals!

When I shifted to my new school, I did not fail to notice they were giving medals as prizes. Enthused, I decided to practice long jump in which I thought I had the best chance. During my 7th, 8th and 9th Std. I tried hard, but the top three positions eluded me. During my 10th Std. also, I gave my best shot at long jump, but failed once again.

I had almost given up hope, but an interesting situation manifested.

Frankly, I was never a champion runner, although I was a decent one. So, during my 10th Std. sports meet, when they announced the 100m DASH preliminaries I went to participate more for fun than with any hopes of winning. As expected, I was selected for the finals.

To my surprise, I found two main runners, who could easily overtake me any day, were not among the competitors.  Since they were not confident of getting the first prize, I learned, they opted out of this event in order to have a better chance at winning the individual championship.

That left me with two other competitors — my best friend, who was the 100m DASH specialist champion, whom I couldn’t even dream of overtaking. And another competitor from the next class who had won the first place in the just concluded 200m DASH.

I didn’t take part in 200m DASH because I was a short distance runner. So while I was fresh from my class, he was looking exhausted. What a Luck, I thought

The whistle was blown and we started running. At half distance, I found myself in the second position. My best friend was miles away in the front, but the 200m guy was trailing closely behind me. Somehow I kept up my lead, and to everyone’s surprise, finished second