Internet Desk: For the last four years Deborah Herold, a Tsunami survivor has not seen the face of her parents. The ace Indian cyclist has no plans to meet them either in next two years as she totally wants to concentrate on her Olympics dream.
Deborah, who will be 22 years of age on Faebruary 18, left her family for Delhi in January 2013, when she was merely 17 and since then her address is at the Indian Gandhi Indoor stadium. Eight years earlier, she and her family survived a devastating tsunami that hit her home land at Andaman & Nicobar Islands in December 2004.
She survived the tsunami by remaining atop a tree for five days eating leaves and tea bark before rejoining her parents who got separated with her initially by the huge waves of water.
“I came here in Delhi in January 2013 and since then I have not gone home. I have not met my parents for the last four years. I only speak to them on phone,” she says.
“I don’t want to meet them now maybe for the next two-three years because I want to qualify for 2020 Olympics.
That is my dream and aim in life. If I win a medal that will be even better but first I have to qualify for it (Olympics).
Nobody from Andaman and Nicobar has been to Olympics and I want to do that,” she told PTI in an interview.
Deborah arrived at the national cycling scene when she won her first track gold at the 2012 Nationals before winning five gold medals in the junior category in the 2013 Track Asian Championship held here.
She rose to limelight when she won four gold medals (one each in 500m time trial, sprint individual and team sprint and keirin) in the women’s elite section at the 2014 Track Cycling Asia Cup in Delhi before another haul of three gold medals (one each in 500m time trial and individual sprint and team sprint) and a silver (in keirin) in the next edition of the same tournament in 2015 here. She then won five medals (one gold, one silver and three bronze in Taiwan Cup Track International Classic event in 2015.
She rose to world number four in December 2015 in the UCI (International Cycling Union) rankings for individual 500m time trial event, the highest ever by any Indian cyclist before achieving the feat of being the first Indian cyclist to qualify for the UCI World Track Championships in London last year.
Deborah will lead the challenge of a 35-member Indian team at the 37th Asian Track Cycling Championship which begins tomorrow at the IGI Stadium velodrome here.
With inputs from PTI.