Back home after 31 months, Srabani Nanda eyes CWG glory

She is part of the 4x100m women’s relay team that also includes Dhanalakshmi, Hima Das, Dutee Chand, Jilna MV and Simi NS. It’s going to be her third CWG and she can’t wait to make the country proud. However, the past three years have been a huge struggle for the Odisha sprinter, who returned from Jamaica last month after more than two and half years.

She had left the country in October 2019 to train in the Caribbean Island. Little did she know then that she wouldn’t be able to come home for more than two years. But that’s exactly what happened as the pandemic began early in 2020.

Even as she trained under Steven Fransic at Kingston MVP track club, she struggled to get to terms with the country. "The culture, food and people are very different. It wasn’t always possible to go out and hang around with friends.

The training also wasn’t always easy because of the language barrier. Moreover, I missed all the social functions and love of family," said Srabani. "Even, the ten and a half hour time gap made it difficult to catch up with family and others." Things were even more difficult at the peak of the pandemic and her mother feared for her wellbeing.

"It was very scary at first and my mom said I should not have gone there. During that time, I lost both the grandparents on my maternal side and kept missing my parental grandparents very much," she added. "Thank God, I could finally meet them after coming back.

They are now 95 and 99 years old." Despite the struggles she stuck to her training though. "I trained from 4am to 8am in the morning and 1.30pm to 5.30pm in the afternoon. Sunday was a rest day.