Till last year, forwards Shivendra Kumar and SV Sunil didn’t think they’d be playing hockey again, leave alone dream of playing at the Olympics, writes The DNA, adding that Shivendra, who severely injured his left collar bone during the senior national championship in Bhopal last year, is one of them.
The striker, who faced a career-threatening injury in July last year, was told by doctors that a comeback would be anything but possible.
“It was a major blow to my career. The injury was severe and the worst happened when initially the doctors couldn’t detect the intensity of the injury. My collar bone was broken and initially, it didn’t get the right treatment,” recalled Shiva, as he is fondly called by his teammates.
After consulting doctors, Shivendra finally got the right treatment and his bone was corrected properly. “But it wasn’t easy even after the treatment. I lost strength and couldn’t hit the ball properly with my left hand. It was a difficult phase and it was only because of my love and passion for the sport that I returned to the team. I was told by my doctors that I wouldn’t be able to play hockey again, but my family was behind me and here I am,” said Shivendra.
Similarly recalls that in 2009, his right knee got hurt while playing. “It was a rare injury and the doctors couldn’t detect the root problem. I was doing well before the injury and was there in the FIH World Cup probables. But the injury kept me away from the trials and I couldn’t play the World Cup,” Sunil said, according to DNA..
Meanwhile sixth-seeded duo of Jwala Gutta and V Diju entered the mixed dou-bles quarterfinals of the Singapore Open Super Series badminton defeating Malaysian duo of Aik Quan Tan and Pei Jing Lai 21-15 21-15 on Thursday. In women’s doubles, Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost to Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii 15-21 20-22. In men’s singles, Ajay Jayaram lost 15-21 14-21 to Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam.
According to media reports, Aditya Mehta won the pre-quarterfinal match at the KENCES–ASCA International Invitation Snooker Championship, Chennai. He beat Divya Sharma of Haryana 4-0.
Meanwhile India’s Harwant Kaur finished third in the women’s discus throw at the Moscow Cham-pionship in Moskva (Russia) on Wednesday. Harwant came up with a season best 58.32m but fell short of the Olympic B grade qualification mark.
