Six women over the age of 30, four of whom are working mothers, surprised everyone when they represented Ahmednagar and finished as runners-up in a state-level championship.
Six basketball champs-turned-moms proved the saying that “motherhood spells end of a career for sportswomen” completely wrong, as they would be representing Maharashtra at a national championship.
Six women over the age of 30, from Pune, four of whom are working mothers, surprised everyone when they represented Ahmednagar and finished as runners-up in a state-level championship.
The six - Arnika Patil, Sajida Bagwan, Gopika Kachare, Mithila Gujar, Kajal Ambedkar and Rekha Nanelu - had been playing for the Maharashtra team in the past and their last game together was 15 years ago.
Four of them - Patil, Bagwan, Kachare and Gujar - all national and international level players, have now been asked to represent Maharashtra at a national level championship in Ludhiana to be held later this month.
"There are senior nationals in Ludhiana. Last time, Maharashtra was in fifth place. So we are expecting to give a good performance and we will win at least win one medal. This is our expectation that we should at least give a good performance. We four girls are playing together after 15 years so there is lot of excitement," said Gopika Kachare.
Their fairytale comeback was planned over a coffee when they were getting nostalgic and then decided to play a 'final tournament'. Days before the championship, they were rejected by the Pune team, which turned them towards Ahmednagar, who took them in squad.
They then achieved surprise victories and ended as runners-up in the tournament.
The jubilant champions now want to give a piece of advice to all sportspersons to continue playing their games.
"I would like to say that we have initiated this in basketball so senior players of other games should also follow. Mostly senior players opt for coaching, and there are very few who come forward to play, as they say they have played enough, and don't want to play at this age. But I would say: you all play, you all will really enjoy the games," said Mithila Gujar.
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