Bhawna Sharma finds it powerful to clarify what drew her to handball, however swears by its transformative impact. The game, in any case, has pulled her out of penury and positioned her among the many finest centrebacks within the nation. On the ongoing Asian Ladies’s Handball Championship right here, Bhawna has been among the many few shining stars for India that lie within the backside half of the pool.
Bhawna Sharma is at the moment the main scorer on the ongoing Asian Handball Championships. (WHL)
Led by Diksha Kumari, India are fielding a younger staff with most gamers from the victorious 2022 Junior Asian Championship squad. It was the competitors whereby Bhawna first gave glimpses of her expertise, scoring eight instances in India’s 41-18 win within the remaining league recreation towards Thailand that awarded India the title. She was additionally named Most Priceless Participant (MVP) and was included within the match’s All-Star Workforce.
“I still look back fondly at that event because it gave me a lot of confidence. However, there is a marked difference in the level of competition at the senior level,” the 21-year-old, who was additionally a part of the Indian staff on the final version of the senior Asian Championships in South Korea (2022) and the Hangzhou Asian Video games (2023), stated.
Bhawna appears to be coping properly on the elite stage, if statistics are an indicator. With 28 targets in 4 matches on the Asian Championships up to now, she is the match’s main scorer, adopted by Sout Korea’s Aru Search engine marketing who has 23 targets. Introduced by World Handball League (WHL) and organised by the Asian Handball Federation, the match noticed hosts India beat Hong Kong 31-28 of their opener adopted by a 32-30 loss to the earlier version’s semi-finalists Iran. Subsequent, India misplaced 48-15 to Japan earlier than bouncing again towards Singapore with a 35-22 consequence.
“I think we have played much better than some of those scorelines. The match against Iran could have gone either way and such close losses are always heartbreaking. Then, we recorded most goals in the group against Japan. We can’t be satisfied with such small gains but they do give us the belief,” she stated.
Hailing from Navgaon village in picturesque Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, Bhawna is the youngest of three sisters. All three took up handball on the village faculty and every of them was adequate to make the nationwide staff. Whereas the eldest, 25-year-old Nidhi, has landed a authorities job and has stepped apart, Mitali (23) and Bhawna are a part of the senior staff.
“Growing up, we had no idea or inclination towards the sport. We saw our dad struggle to make ends meet. At times, putting food on the table was a task. Handball is also a means to give us a better life,” she stated. Her father, Hem Raj, is a small-time farmer who doubles up as a automotive mechanic.
“He washes and repairs cars and works on other people’s fields. It is back-breaking work with little returns, and being the sole breadwinner of his family, raising three kids was always a challenge,” Bhawna stated. That’s when the teaching couple Snehlata and Sachin Chaudhary stepped up. Bhawna was in Class VI at when Snehlata, a former India international-turned-political science instructor, launched her to handball.
“In Navgaon, most villagers would marry off their girls by the time they turned 18. Handball gave girls some hope to carve a different life for themselves,” stated Snehlata.
Progressively, the phrase unfold in regards to the coach-couple and extra ladies began to troop in. By 2015, Snehlata and Sachin moved again to the previous’s native place in Mor Singhi, a small village in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh and began their handball academy. As of now, about 60 ladies throughout age-groups keep free-of-cost of their residential facility whereas about 250 ladies — together with non-residential amateurs — are skilled by them.
“What also motivates kids to join our facility is the prospect of getting two square meals a day, and Bhawna was no different. She, however, was very committed and never hesitated in putting in extra hours for training,” Sachin stated.
Bhawna believes that the younger Indian staff, if groomed properly, has the potential to make waves on the worldwide stage. As a part of their preparation, the Indian staff had a coaching camp at SAI NCOE Centre in Gandhinagar however such initiatives are few and much between.
“We need the right basics. Handball, for instance, is an indoor sport but most of the year, we practice outdoors for lack of facilities. We need a lot of work at the grassroot level,” she stated.