Kolkata: Shatakshi Rai couldn’t have hoped for a better result at home. After running her personal best of 11.91 seconds in 100m at the Indian Grand Prix 2 in Trivandrum and putting up an impressive show at the state meet early this month, the Patna girl won the overall 100m at the Indian Open Athletics ahead of Srabani Nanda at Patliputra Sports Complex in Kankarbagh, Patna, on Saturday. The 23-year-old ran 12.04 seconds in Race A, which was .01 faster than Nanda, who ran 12.05 seconds in Race C, and is now looking forward to continuing her good show at the National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships in Chennai next month. But to do well there she will have to work on her start, and she is well aware of it. “Something I’m confident about is my max velocity. And when I’m at my max velocity, I can catch most of the athletes. But I have a very slow start. My reaction is not good. That is something I need to work on,” said Rai during an interaction with TOI. Besides the Chennai meet, she will be competing at two more events this year, but her main target is to make it to the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games in 2026. It will be quite an achievement for Rai, who had two surgeries, the latest of which was just two years back, because she was having constant injuries. “I had two ACL reconstruction surgeries on my left knee — the first in 2019 and the second in 2023. It’s been about two years since I started training again, and my progress has been very encouraging. I’ve been hitting personal bests in almost every competition,” added the Patna athlete, who trains at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar under former India sprinter Manikanta Raj. And training in Bhubaneswar itself has been quite an experience for the KIIT University student, who is doing masters in Transportation Engineering. “I got to train with one of my idols — Dutee Chand — for a few months, and it was special. The environment is very professional, and you are always surrounded by other major athletes, and that gives you competitive energy,” she further added. However, she wasn’t too pleased with her performance at the Indian Open Athletics but felt good beating Nanda, who was part of the 4x100m relay team that won the silver in the Asian Athletics Championships. “She’s a legend. She has achieved so much success. Obviously, timing better than her was a very good experience. But I know I must work hard to get to her level,” she said.Hopefully, she will be able to do that with the support from her coach and her parents, but, for now, this win will certainly give her a huge boost that will inspire her to work even harder.
