An athlete reporting late for his or her event is notunusual. Sadly that tends to be the reason for their presence in the papers thenext day. But then occasionally therecomes along an athlete who goes on to make a mark in the race despite startingoff with a massive disadvantage. Nitisha Goankar faced something similar whenshe missed the start of the Dr Ramani half Marathon at Ramnathi by 30 minutes. Athleteshad completed seven kms of the 21 km run. Everyone felt Nitisha would drop out.However she surprised everyone by warming up and hitting the road.
Nothing mattered asshe ate the km’s and surprised everyone by coming in second, a mere fourminutes behind the winner.
Speaking to her coach later she said that she had nointention of dropping out after traveling 100 kilometres.
“I have competed for three years after starting in June 2010and have managed to win every race. Istarted participating in June 2010 and have since then won every race, thanksto the encouragement of my coach and mentor Savio Leitao, our Sports Directorat Shree Mallikarjun College, Canacona” Nitisha says. She hails from a remote tribal pocket Fulamol,Gaodongari in Canacona, she is the youngest of six sisters.
Nitisha’s talents bloomed when she joined the Cross Countryteam practices. Within a month she became the Goa University Inter CollegiateChampion and Team Champion. There was no looking back after her first win.
It’s her final year in the college and hopes to now win the VascoRiver Marathon. In spite of her sporting activities she secured a first classin SYBA.
Nitisha is brand ambassador of Prudential Developers and hersponsors are Rotary Club of Reveira, and Paresh Sawardekar. Indeed, Nitisha hasproved that nothing is impossible.
