New Delhi: So what if Sidra Muskan and Nidhi Mishra are visually challenged. It does not stop them from dreaming big.
Muskan, the 19-year-old athlete has a dream of making a giant leap at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in long jump. Nidhi Mishra, at 28, is already an established athlete with a bronze at the 2018 Asian Para Games and is confident of a podium finish in discus throw at the quadrennial games. The two Delhi para athletes, while standing poles apart on the athletics firmament, epitomise the undying spirit with which they are pursuing their goal of ultimate glory in sport.
Not just these two para athletes but more than 650 visually-challenged sportsperson gathered at the Thyagaraj Stadium for the three-day National Athletics Championship for the Blind have a common goal -- to bring glory to the nation. Sidra's parents realised that their daughter was going blind when she was eight years old.
Her father, a driver, tried everything within his means to get good treatment but the congenital disease left Sidra with only 30 per cent vision.
"Four of us (they are five siblings) have this disorder and have just 30 per cent vision left," says Sidra, who has a long jump silver and a 1500m bronze in the 2021 PCI National Championships and a 400m bronze in the 2022 edition. Her next target is to qualify for the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou and then push for her inclusion in the contingent for the Paris Games.