Overview

There is tension in the air as one walks into the practice session of the Athletics Team. The members of the Girls Athletics Team keep a wary eye on the darkening sky as they jog around Gym G, warming up for another intense practice session and hoping a surprise bout of rain will not ruin it. The team has been training hard since the first week of August for BOSM. Following the warm-up, they go into the main workout sessions (involving crunches, lunges, frog jumps, duck walks.etc) and strengthening exercises, and finally end it with the cool down sessions ( involving stretching and core exercises like butterfly crunches, mountain climbers, push-ups.etc).

Since athletics is a mix of different track and field events, the exercise regimen for every athlete is personalized. The individual events include the field events- shot put, discus throw, javelin throw, triple jump, and the track events- 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, and the relay races.

Apart from the issue of the general lack of interest for athletics among girls as compared to boys, the team is facing another hurdle in the form of the erratic weather that Pilani is famous for. The throwing events require a circular pit which, when wet, affects the players’ performance because of lack of friction. In addition to this, the track is made from mud and not rubber, which is ideal for running events. Despite these setbacks, the team has been diligently practicing to put its best foot forward during BOSM.

Past Performance

The girls performed exceptionally well last year. Harshita Verma, the captain, won gold medals in both 1500 metres as well as 400 metres track events. The team also won the gold in the 4*100 metres relay event. During the previous year, the athletics team also won two medals (a silver and a bronze) in an outstation event at IIT Delhi.

Recruitments

The recruitment process is usually incredibly challenging for the team. However, team got lucky this time, with two recruits even for the relatively tough and unpopular throwing events, and a couple of talented long distance runners. The short distance runners have commendable timings for 100 metre races. They have clocked under 17 seconds during practice sessions. The team is hopeful of them completing in 15 seconds during the actual competition.

Captain’s Interview

“Athletics brings a sense of order into my life. I feel fit, and I like my days scheduled” said Harshita Verma, captain of the BITS Pilani Athletics Team for Girls, when asked about why she chose athletics in her first year of college over swimming, which was her preferred sport during her school days.

Incidentally, she had secured first place in the 4.5 km BITS-run during her first year, which led to her entry into the athletics team. Her rise to captaincy happened during the second semester of her second year. One of the most challenging things about being the captain, she felt, was recruiting girls for the team. “About 80-90 boys attend the trials for athletics, but only very few girls are interested.”

The past few weeks have been particularly gruelling for her, with most of her time being used up on training her team members to give good competition during recruitment, followed by training the new recruits and bringing them back to shape for BOSM.

In addition to Athletics, Harshita is a part of Ragamalika, the hub for classical musicians and dancers on campus. In her second year, she decided to narrow down her other commitments so as to accommodate Athletics. “It refreshes my mind, it refreshes my day. I’d feel like continuing athletics even if it weren’t for BOSM,” she said.

The team is already flourishing under her captaincy. Their performance at IIT Delhi was a tremendous achievement for Harshitha given the extreme competition faced. The captain is very enthusiastic about BOSM 2017. “I’m feeling competitive. We’ll put up a good fight”, she said with a confident smile, before signing off.