Sports is my life: Nayanmoni Saikia

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: New Sports icon and Lawn Bowls gold medallist in Commonwealth Games Nayanmoni Saikia was in Nagaon on Saturday to attend the final of Independence Day Cup Football. At the side line of the final Nayanmoni spoke for a while with The Sentinel. Here is the except.

The Sentinel: After Gold winning performance in Commonwealth Games now there is a lot of expectation from you in the forthcoming National Games. Do you feel any pressure?

Nayanmoni: Pressure... not so. I will try my best to give 100 percent in Gujarat and win medals for my State.

TS: Lawn bowls is one of the events where sports lovers of the State are expecting several medals from Gujarat. Your comment...

Nayanmoni: Yes. Most of our players are very matured and capable to win medals. Last time we won 7 medals, including 3 Gold (two of them were won by herself) and hope we will be able to repeat the same performance this year also.

TS: This time there are several star athletes in Assam team. Can we expect top five finish in medal tally?

Nayanmoni: Yes, this time our team is very good. Hima, Lovlina, Shiva, Amlan...along with a few promising junior players like Poppy Hazarika will represent Assam and their presence will definitely make our team one of the strong contenders for top five finish in the Games.

TS: Injury forced many players to quit the game in very early part of their career. But you are exceptional. How have you motivated yourself?

Nayanmoni: Sports is my life and perhaps without sports I can not stay alive. I stay away from those people who discourage sports. I even skip training during the early part of my government job to attend national camp. So motivation comes automatically once I wake up in the morning.

TS: Do you feel sports scenario of Assam witnesses a huge change in the recent past?

Nayanmoni: Definitely. First I would like to thanks the State Government for taking a lot of initiative to promote sports in a very big way. It's amazing to see that players are travelling to Gujarat by flights this time and will also get job if wins medal. Development of existing infrastructures are going on and Government is also creating new ultra modern infrastructures which will help a lot to the new athletes. However biggest change I witnessed is the change of attitude in the mind of parents. Now they are allowing their children to involve with sports along with education which was very rare in early days.

TS: Any future goal !

Nayanmoni: I will try to play the game as long as possible and will help the young players to achieve their goals.

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