Women are destined to achieve great things in life. There is literally nothing in this world that can stop them from touching the pinnacle of success. Just like men, women too are going places with relative ease in this competitive world.
Dreams can be translated into reality if the dreamer has that indomitable will, drive and spark to surge a person on until the goal is attained. From the fields in Satara to winning medals for the nation at the big stage has been no less than a fairy tale for Lalita Babar
Lalita Babar faced many challenges in her life and she defied all odds to come out on top. Hailing from a family of farmers, life hasn’t been that easy for the 30-year-old. But the track and field athlete showcased her mettle in the sport that she truly loves the most and she is in a good position today. She started her career in athletics as a long-distance runner when she was young. She shot to fame after she won the first Gold medal in the U-20 National Championships at Pune in 2005.
Even at a young age, she showed great resilience and lit the track on fire by running fast. In 2014, she once again scripted history as she won her third consecutive Mumbai marathon.
She was also determined to go places and win a medal in multi-discipline events like the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. So she decided to switch to 3000 metres steeplechase in January 2014, following her massive success at the marathon.
She unleashed her true potential at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea when she settled for the bronze medal clocking 9:35.37 in the final. In the process, she also broke the national record which was previously set by Sudha Singh.
The Maharashtra native followed it up with yet another achievement in the next year at the 2015 Asian Championships where she raced to a gold medal win clocking at 9:34.13 and in the process she brought the best out of herself. She broke her own personal record, the Indian national record and the games record as well and qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
At the Rio Summer Olympics, she clocked 9:19.76 and qualified to the final becoming the first Indian in 32 years to enter a final in any track event in sports history. It was well and truly an outstanding achievement that it took more than three decades for any Indian athlete to accomplish the feat.