Ashwini Akkunji Runs Towards End Of Tunnel

It is easy to miss the tall, thin, tough female runner in the crowd of jocks warming-up on the practice ground of the National Institute of Sport (NIS) Patiala. However, Ashwini Akkunji excels when she tames the curve approaching the final 100 metres leaving fellow runners in her slipstream.

In the direction of the finish Akkunji lets up, catches her breath and slumps on to a mat for a sip of water. A 20-minute chilling sitting accompanies before the evening practice gets finished off.

On the eve of the seventeenth National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships as jocks plan towards a heavier work-load agenda for the period ahead, the 25-year-old is getting ready to take first few cautious steps towards a return. A training plan that was tack together during October is steadily gaining steam.

The Guangzhou Asian Games double gold medallist (400m hurdles, 4x400m relay), who was consequently banished for a period of 2 years together with the other associates of the women’s relay quartet accompanying a steroid abuse, will be entitled to battle again from the initial week of July. But despite her 5-hour training schedule accompanied religiously over the last 7 month period, she is far from race fit.