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BHOPAL: Harshita Tomar, all of 16 years, took the wind out of men’s sails to win bronze in the open laser 4.7 sailing category in Asian Games on Friday. She was the only girl on the podium — the only girl, in fact, in the top 10.
“We were dumbfounded. A career in sports? Never thought of it,” her father Devendra Singh Tomar, a marketing agent with a leading Hindi daily, told TOI.
“We refused. Harshita was determined but we wanted her to focus on studies. Then, one day, sailors from the academy came to our house and convinced them that she has talent for this sport,” he added.
Harshita’s mother, CBI constable Rani, was the first to be convinced, and she persuaded her husband. The teenager started winning medals in her first year and was awarded the ‘best sailor of the country’ this year.
Sports minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia said, “Harshita has gifted me one of the best days of my life. She has become an example for all parents that girls must be supported in every field. Winning medals against men has made this medal even more significant. She has only practiced in lakes but took on world class competitors in the sea,” she said.
Harshita, from MP’s Hoshangabad, is the second youngest Indian medallist at the Asiad after Meerut shooter Saurabh Chaudhary. The schoolgirl had to skip her Class X board exams for the Asiad. She was selected by MP Water Sports Academy during a talent hunt four years ago.
Harshita was a school-level swimmer when talent-scouters went to Hoshangabad, a temple city on the banks of Narmada, in 2014. She made the selection grade in her very first attempt and went home to tell her parents that she wanted to be a sailor.
“We were dumbfounded. A career in sports? Never thought of it,” her father Devendra Singh Tomar, a marketing agent with a leading Hindi daily, told TOI.
“We refused. Harshita was determined but we wanted her to focus on studies. Then, one day, sailors from the academy came to our house and convinced them that she has talent for this sport,” he added.
Harshita’s mother, CBI constable Rani, was the first to be convinced, and she persuaded her husband. The teenager started winning medals in her first year and was awarded the ‘best sailor of the country’ this year.
Sports minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia said, “Harshita has gifted me one of the best days of my life. She has become an example for all parents that girls must be supported in every field. Winning medals against men has made this medal even more significant. She has only practiced in lakes but took on world class competitors in the sea,” she said.
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