Aruna accorded ceremonial welcome by students of Gnana Prabha and Donald Memorial High School

It was an emotional reunion with her mother for World Cup gymnastics bronze medallist Aruna Reddy when she stepped into her residence on her return after three months, at Attapur here on Friday.

Even as the mother-daughter duo got teary-eyed, the first thing the latter did was to walk across the hall to garland the photo of her late father-cum-mentor Narayana Reddy.

“But for him, I would not have been in this position. I miss him badly in this moment of joy,” she said, choking with emotions.

She was accorded a touching ceremonial welcome by the students of Gnana Prabha and Donald Memorial High School.

In 2010, everything seemed to have come to a dead-end. Her father Narayana Reddy, who used to take her on his two-wheeler from the school to Lal Bahadur Stadium for training, passed away. Yet, Aruna showed great courage and did not let the trauma of losing her mentor deter her from pursuing gymnastics training.

“I felt the best tribute to him is to make it big in the sport. And this would not have been possible without the amazing support I got from my mother (Subadhara), elder sister Pavani and brother-in-law Janardhan Reddy. They are a huge support to me after my father’s demise,” said Aruna. “Aruna’s father was always more concerned about his daughter than himself. He never had food on time, was always eager to see that his daughter didn’t miss either the school or the training programme,” recalls Aruna’s mother. “He had the biggest impact on her,” she added. “Frankly, we were expecting an international medal, but not the World Cup bronze so soon,” she said.

For her part, Pavani said all their support would have come to nothing if Aruna had not backed it by her determination to do well. “The credit goes to her for pursuing gymnastics with the same passion even after our father’s death,” she said.

“There were moments of despair when she had a shoulder injury a few years ago. But Aruna was back with confidence. That was the critical phase when we were all tense,” she said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by V.V. Subrahmanyam / Hyderabad – March 02nd, 2018