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Usha determined to retire on a high note

Onkar Singh

Former sprint queen P T Usha is sore about the way the Indian athletics federation is treating senior athletes like her.

In Delhi to take part in the Salwan and Raja Bhalindra Singh international athletics meets at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, Usha said:. "There is so much of politics in sport that I sometimes wonder how did I survive for such a long time. Two decades in athletics is a long time in sports. I have done so much for my country and see the kind of room they give me? The door is simply coming out. There was no television in the room, and when I asked them how did they allot my original room to someone else without asking me, then they gave me a television but without a cable connection. Now they are giving me one," Usha told rediff.com in an exclusive interview.

But Usha surely knows how to throw her weight around and get what she wants. She needed to go to a doctor to get medical attention for her injured knee, so she promptly walked into the administrator's office of the Sports Authority of India and demanded a car for the purpose. And the officials obliged her.

"She is big bully. She knows her status and she exploits it fully," alleged an official of the SAI.

It is not just the athletics federation that Usha is upset with. She is also sore with mediapersons for saying she is running for money.

"I have heard some people saying that I continue to run for the sake of money. What is money to me? I have enough of it. Nobody talks about my contribution to the sport. Nobody talks about the 101 medals I have won in my 20-year career. Nobody talks about the efforts I made to attain those heights. Nobody talks about my performance at the Los Angeles Olympics where I missed a bronze medal by fraction of one thousand of a second. People think that I am looking for money and that is why I keep on running. Nobody realises that I want to finish my career with a gold medal in an international competition. I want to motivate the younger generation. I feel sad when some officials say that I should be discarded because I am not good enough. If I had not taken part in the relay race in Nepal, we would not have won the medal at all. I may be old but I am still better than many of the younger athletes," Usha claimed.

When asked why she split with her long time coach O M Nambiar, who was responsible for much of her success, Usha said that after Los Angeles Olympics he suddenly started finding faults with her. "He would tell me that I was not good enough. He would criticise me all the time. So I saw no point in continuing with him as my coach. Ever since I have been working with J S Bhatia, my coach now, my performance has improved substantially. I have been doing well in international meets. I want to retire on high note and nobody should say that I retired when I was not good enough," Usha declared.

But those who are following her career closely feel the 'golden girl' of Indian athletics is needlessly making an issue of nothing. They say her knee injury does not permit her to run properly, as sometimes she feels pain while running, which forces her to slow down.

"She would do well to call it a day and attend to her family," said a senior sports scribe.

Will she? "Retire, there is no chance of it right now. When I want to retire I will tell the media a day before. But that time is still a long, long way off," she said.