Injury didn’t allow me to be a forward: Bhide
Shweta Singh
AHMEDABAD: She started off as a sprinter and at the age of 10 shifted to hockey after suffering a near-debilitating injury to her ankle.
But Rekha Bhide had the stuff that makes champions and in the 1973-74 season, at the tender age of 14 and a half, the XI class student of St Joseph’s Convent, Pune was making her debut for India’s women’s hockey team. She remains the youngest to become an international in women’s hockey in the country so far.
The Uganda team was touring India then and Rekha travelled around the country, displaying her prowess in the right-half position. “I would have been a forward, but the injury to my ankle forced me to take a spot in the half line,” said Rekha on her visit to Ahmedabad recently.
It was in 1974 itself that Rekha made it to the big league — the fourth Women’s World Cup in the French Riviera city of Cannes, better known for its film festivals. “India topped their pool in that tournament and finished fourth overall,” Rekha said.
Her crowning glory came in 1980 at the Moscow Olympics when she captained the country. “We finished fourth… but could have done much better. It was a league-only tournament, but we knew very little about the format and were asked to draw our last pool match. Suddenly it was announced that we had finished fourth.”
But the ‘Olympics were a personal triumph for her. Rekha was declared the tournament’s “most elegant (best) player.”