CWG gold medal winner Ashwini says she had self doubts after Rio Olympics

Everything now seems to be falling in place for Ashwini but it wasn’t so two years ago when she and Jwala failed to win a single match at the Rio Olympics and decided to end their seven-year old association. She was down with dengue ahead of the Games and it plagued her performance ever since. 

“It is nice to get all the acknowledgement now but it has not been easy. After 2016 Rio Games, I started doubting myself. There was no power in my smashes, I couldn’t hit as harder I did earlier, it was just not working. Though I had recovered from dengue and physically I looked okay, internally I was struggling to get back to my best. So there were moments when I thought will I ever be able to make a comeback?,” she said.

She kept juggling between Bangalore and Hyderabad. Struggling with her fitness, she found solace at home but this year she shifted base to Hyderabad after getting married to businessman and model Karan Medappa. Having the comfort of family helped as she could focus on training more and it worked. 

“I started training with a sport strength and conditioning coach in Bangalore in December, 2016. I felt better and played well in PBL. It was that time I was playing the singles, I played at Syed Modi. But again my physical strength came down. So I was crashing again and again and it was disheartening,” she said. 

“Luckily, I started feeling better this year and we focused on training and not playing tournaments.” 

The 28-year-old Ponappa played in two events at the Gold Coast-- mixed doubles and women’s doubles, turning up each day on court during the fortnight at the Gold Coast. 

She also added a bronze to her kitty in women doubles with N Sikki Reddy, following her gold and silver medals with Jwala Gutta in the 2010 and 2014 editions respectively. 

“2010 was my first CWG, there was an eagerness. It was in Delhi and I was young. Nobody expected us to do well but we won gold and a silver in team event for first time. In 2014 CWG, we were expected to do well and we won a silver. But we didn’t win a team medal,” Ashwini says.