Reeba Anna George’s journey illustrates the hardships faced by athletes at the grassroots level
Kerala’s long-distance runner Reeba Anna George keeps her passion for running alive by participating in local prize-money events that help keep her and her family afloat.
She is not the face of Indian distance running, but a runner on the fringes striving hard to excel. Hailing from Thiruvalla in Pathanamthitta district, her survival instinct has enabled her to generate small amounts of funds through local prize-money road races to fuel her passion. She is competing at the 29th National Senior Athletics Federation Cup in Ranchi. “I had to spend Rs 27,000 on air tickets from Kerala to Ranchi,” Reeba told Sportsbackstory.com after her 5,000m track race in Ranchi on Monday. She also had to manage her own lodging and boarding.
Kerala is a state with huge interest in track and field. It has produced some of the biggest names in Indian athletics, including icons like PT Usha, Anju Bobby George, and Shiny Wilson.
Reeba says there is hardly any support from the Kerala State Athletics Association. The 29-year-old was the oldest among the 10 competitors who contested for medals in the 5,000m track race at the 29th National Senior Athletics Federation Competition on Monday.
Sakshi Bhandari, 20, was the youngest in the field and finished 10th and last with a time of 18:21.33.
The Ranchi event will act as the last qualification event for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
The field was spread out from the start. It did not just reflect the athletes’ preparation to achieve the CWG qualification time (14:56.60), but also highlighted the wide gap between the favourite, Seema, and those behind the leader due to inadequate support at the grassroots level. The gap will not be bridged any time soon because medal winners are more visible to sponsors.
In terms of financial support and social security too, the chasing pack is far behind the medal winners, and it will take years to bridge that gap.
The winner of the 5,000m, Seema, represented Reliance, a company considered a major stakeholder in Indian sports. Seema, who is from Himachal Pradesh, regularly gets international exposure, and experts in the field believe she has the potential to win medals at the world level. Her winning time was 16:04.83. Seema will still have to improve to showcase her talent at the continental level. Seema has financial security as she is employed in the bank and can focus on her running.
For Reeba, whose seventh-place timing was 17:44.01, it will be back to the grind of running road races and hoping she earns enough to take care of her family as well as her passion for running. Her father is a heart patient and cannot work. Her mother runs a ration shop. With meagre financial resources, it is a challenging situation at home, says Reeba, who currently trains in Palakkad.
Her two elder brothers are in the Gulf but have to manage their own families. “I do get some support from my brothers, but that isn’t adequate,” Reeba says about her off-field challenges.
She had applied for a job in the Southern Railways through the sports quota, but it was turned down as she did not fulfil the age criterion at the time (below 25 years), which is part of the recruitment policy for players.
“I’m still looking for a job,” says Reeba, who shifted from race walking to distance running.
Keeping herself self-motivated in such circumstances is difficult.
Chances are that Reeba might fade away soon, either due to exhaustion or injury, as she continues to run endless prize-money races in pursuit of excellence.
EOM
