Me as an athlete🏃‍♀️❤️ (A chapter of my life story)

Hi guys,

Today I thought to share a fabulous chapter of my life as an athlete🏃‍♀️😍.

Actually, In my little times, I really didn't engage in sports. But in sports meet 2014 (Final year in my school) I participated in some running events in order to make our house "Vijaya" the champions🏆.Luckily I won some places from events 1500m, 800m. ( Thinking of my running skills.. Lol 🤭🤭.. It was only luck cuz I knew nothing about running).

When I entered the university I never thought of being an athlete. Fortunately the freshers athletic meet in 2018 became the turning point of my uni life. Reminding me of the selections for freshers meet always makes me smile questioning me what an idiot am I? 🤭.Some of us were told to run a 400m for the selection while some were participating for long jump & Tripple jump selections. I thought to run 400m and with the start given I started running with my fellow buddies. Suddenly in the middle of the track, I got a mad idea to stop running and I slowly sneaked to the crowd near the long jump pit from the track without finishing it. So I was not selected for any event.Next day I went to cheer the athletes who are participating. As we are the faculty with the smallest number of students we didn't have enough athletes to participate in each event. Only freshers could participate and we were scolded by our seniors. To protect the pride of the batch I volunteered to run. I won 400m - 1st place🥇, 1500m - 2nd 🥈place, 800m - 3rd place🥉.

That day my mind started me telling that I have something in my body to be an athlete. One of our seniors asked me and my other two friends to join the athletic practices daily. Actually, she was my first inspiration to be an athlete😍. Selections for the university team were held and I was selected to the university athletic pool and in 2018 I participated in inter-university games for the first time for 1500m. It was only a start. With the proper guidance of my coaches Dilupa miss, Sanath sir, Shashi miss & Keerthi sir I improved a lot as an athlete❤️.

Then the golden athletic era for our faculty started. In the interfaculty athletic meet 2018 we 6 girls (the smallest number of athletes participated from a faculty) won the girls championship for our faculty for the first time in history💪.I won 800m-1st place🥇, 1500m-3rd place🥉, and 400m4 relay 1st place🥇. Thereafter we won first place in 400m4 relay in every meet held. And it is my favourite event😍.

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So far there were many meets and I have won many places but the proud moment of my athletic life was SLUG( SriLankan University Games) 2019. I participated for 2 events 800m & 400m*4 relay. The first event was 800m. I joined for warm up session. And I was really frightened to death at that moment. There were three heats and I was in the first heat. I got blessings from my beloved coach and her words made me strong💪. With a big hope, I stepped onto the track. Before the game started I closed my eyes and thought I will do my best.

The game started. In the end, I was 4th of the heat with my best timing for 800m so far. As the first two from the heats are selected for the finals I lost my dreams for the finals. That moment made me shocked and I cried to make my pain away💔. But my coach said not to worry as it was my best timing and we athletes should bear both wins and loses equally. There I made my mind strong and stepped to the pavilion and had a big packet of lunch cuz I had my other event the next day. While in the pavilion I suddenly heard my number and the university in an announcement. I carefully listened to it again & I couldn't believe my ears I have been selected for the finals😱. By the criteria first 2 from each heat and the best 2 from timing, I was selected for the finals. To make sure I even rechecked my number on the skinner🤭. Even now I remember my coach asking me what do you feel now. I really don't have words to express my feelings at that moment. Finals were held. And I got 7th place and I was extremely happy about that.

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The next day my favourite event was to be held. 400m*4 relay. Speciality here was that all 4 in our relay team were from our faculty.( kasi akka,asha , upeksha & me) we had a very big hope to get a meddle from this event. We were selected for the finals from the heats. And in the finals, we won 6th place with university colors with our best timing. I was the one to finish the relay running the final lap. Even though a meddle was there in front of me I couldn't reach it.💔 I did my best but the strength of my legs was not enough to chase those fast running legs in front of me. But we were satisfied and happy that we won university colors there performing our best❤️😇.

Finally, the meet was over and our university won 4th place from all universities after a very long time with the Captaincy of: girls captain Kasi akka 🥰( from our faculty: My first inspiration) & boys captain Kushan aiya.

At the end of the day in the stadium, we all gathered and thanked our coaches, captains, and all others who helped us. There unexpectedly the girls' captaincy of the university athletic team for the next year was given to me and It was a very proud moment in my life❤️.

Finally, we arrived to our hostel premises in the middle of the night, and there we received a loving surprise party for our victory from my ever-loving roomies🥰🥰.

Even after SLUG we practised hard and we organized some meets but I was not able to do much as the captain due to this COVID-19 pandemic💔. But I wish before graduation I could do something much bigger for the team and I will be able to step on the track another one more time to do my best💪.

I really thank all who helped through my journey and for anyone who catch up with my story I wanna say " Never think that it's impossible to do something that we have never done in our childhood/ something that we never tried. If we try we can do anything💪. We can be anyone. The only things matter are our hope, our commitment, and our own strength"❤️❤️

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