A daughter of a pan shop owner has fought all odds to win a bronze medal in the recent Asian Junior Athletic Championship.
Ruchi Tiwari's bronze-winning feat in the Macau meet, held from July 15-18, is a story of sweat and perseverance.
Ruchi's father Rajendra Tiwari runs a pan shop in Kanpur and does not have enough funds to buy a pole vault for his daughter.
A good pole costs around Rs 30,000 and her father was unable to meet the expenses. So Ruchi participated in the Asian Tournament by borrowing a pole from her Chinese coach.
"I was surprised to see that the other participants were having five to six poles. If I had a good pole, I could have won silver for the country," Ruchi said.
But that did not deter Ruchi from pursuing the sport and she did well at the international level by clearing the qualifiers in Macau before bagging the bronze with a jump of three metres.
Ruchi's interest in pole vault arose from her sister Shail Tiwari's participation in the sport.
Shail, a former national gold medallist, inspired Ruchi to start taking the sport seriously in 2004.
Her liking for pole vault soon became a passion as she won a silver medal in 2005 Junior National Inter-zonal athletics meet in her very first attempt.
A gold medal in the National Junior Championship last year made her believe in her abilities and she could now dream big at the international stage.
Ruchi occupied sixth position in 2006 Federation Cup in Delhi by crossing 3.20 mark and her performance earned her a place in the national athletics team, paving her way to Macau and bigger success in life.
