Volleyball player sisters and their father looking to show talent in international sports
Five sisters from a village in Churu district of Rajasthan are working hard day and night to make their father’s dream come true and bring laurels to the country as well as play volleyball at the international level. Girls of Jigsana Tal village made headlines by securing third position in the recently held state level Rajiv Gandhi Rural Olympics. Nitika, the youngest of five sisters, captained the team while Priyanka played as setter and Arbina and Aina played as attacker.
Bhavna, the eldest of five sisters who competed in sporting events, once participated in a national tournament as an athlete and is currently preparing for a physical training instructor course. His father Om Prakash Saharan told PTI, “The team had finished third in the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Olympics state level competition. Out of the six-man team, five were my daughters. The youngest of them, Nitika, who played as a captain, was honored by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
Saharan has eight daughters and seven of them have participated in sports at district, state and national level sports events. He said that Aina has played volleyball four times at national level and won silver medal once while Priyanka, Urbina and Aina have won gold medal thrice at state level. Saharan said his daughters have been preparing since 2016 and practice volleyball for five hours every day. He credited his determination to his coaches Dilip Singh Poonia and Sanjay Dua.
Saharan said that he used to take his daughters every month to participate in an open volleyball competition in Haryana, where he has won several medals. He said, “I don’t have any son so I decided to give sports training to my daughters so that they can play for the country and bring medals and make the village and the people of the country proud.” Saharan said, “It is an unfulfilled dream of mine as I too had played volleyball at the state level before 1986.” He said all he needed was the right guidance and the right training.
After the birth of his daughters Saharan decided to make them players and trained them on the school grounds. He said, “Dilip Poonia fed my daughters along with boys to make them the best players of volleyball.” Aina said, “It is mine to fulfill my father’s dream of playing for the country and making people proud. it’s a dream. This has been possible due to the inspiration of my family and the training given by our coach Dilip Poonia. “I hope our hard work will pay off one day and I will represent the country in international competitions,” she said. In-charge of Olympic Games Vijaypal Dhuan lauded the performance of the girls in the tournament. He said his performance also received praise from Churu District Collector Siddharth Sihag who witnessed his game.
