Tracking a record

Sprint is Sanaya Ichhaporia’s strength. Her can-do, will-do attitude has seen her speed into the Limca Book of Records 2014, having won 266 medals, including 10 best athlete awards, at school, district, state and national level meets over a span of eight years. Moving out of her comfort zone with tough training and travel, the Bombay girl has taken part in India’s national games in places as far away as Calcutta, Haridwar, Bhopal, Ernakulum, Warangal, Poona, Vijayawada and Rajnandgaon in various age groups. "In a span of four years, Sanaya qualified 19 times for the finals in national games. Out of these, she won 10 times — five gold, two silver and three bronze medals,” narrates her father Hoshang. "It took around one year for the sports authorities of the Limca Book of Records to consider me for ‘Exceptional Impressive Achievement’ and ‘for most medals won at state and national level (athletics, under 18 years),’” explains Sanaya who is now 19 years old.

Of her 266 medals, 207 (or 78 percent) are gold, 44 are silver and 15 bronze. She has set 44 new meet records and eight new state records! "I was 10 when I started my sprinting career. At that point of time I had never thought of any kind of fame. I had realized that God has gifted me good running speed and I started working hard to hone my talent. At the same time I had to strike a balance in academics too and I have always passed with distinction,” says Sanaya who is presently in TY B.Com in H. R. College of Commerce. "I give thanks to God, my parents without whom I would not have achieved this milestone, my trainers Savio D’Souza and Dinanath Maurya and my Christ Church School principal Carl Laurie.”
Training and toil for a whole year was put together to pull off a race that lasted but a few seconds! "Whenever Sanaya stood on the starting line in the finals in the nationals (where the eight best girls in the country compete in their respective age groups), my wife Daisy and I would move to a higher level on the stands far from the crowd to get a bird’s eye view of the runners in full action. Believe me, for those 12 to 13 sec (for the 100 m) and 26 to 27 sec (for the 200 m), all we could hear were our heartbeats and nothing in the world, at that point of time, was more important to us than those few seconds!” describes Hoshang. Accompanying their child to competitions from a very young age, bearing the expenses of training, travel, boarding and lodging at unfamiliar places had put a severe strain on finances but "as parents we feel proud of Sanaya for entering the Limca Book of Records. The time, money and kind of sacrifices we have undergone have given us rich dividends and we feel on top of the world!”
"Between the ages of 10 and 18, I have run in a higher age group at most of the state and national level competitions and that made me a stronger runner,” she declares. "When girls were playing and enjoying their childhood, I used to be on the track, sweating it out to achieve my goals. Instead of going on vacations, I was touring to take part in district, zone, state and national level meets!” Success without sacrifice is not possible, the athlete asserts.