Need Customised Shoes For My Six Toes: Heptathlete Swapna Barman

Swapna Barman became the first Indian heptathlete to win an Asian Games gold.

Swapna Barman produced her career-best performance on Wednesday logging 6026 aggregate points.

(Photo: AP)

The first Indian heptathlete to win an Asian Games gold, Swapna Barman on Wednesday made a plea to provide her more customised shoes for her 'abnormal' feet.

Barman, who has six toes in both her feet, produced her career-best performance on Wednesday logging 6026 aggregate points from the seven events spread across two days. She competed with a tape on her right cheek to lessen pain arising out of teeth infection.

I have got this gold on the National Sports day, so it’s really special. I use normal shoes worn by people who have normal five toes. It really pains during training. It is very uncomfortable, whether I wear spikes or normal shoes.

Swapna Barman

She said she also overcame a knee injury before the event.

Asked if she would like some companies to manufacture customised shoes for her, she said, "Definitely. It will make life easy."

En route the title, she won the high jump (1003 points) and javelin throw (872 points) events and finished second-best in shot put (707 points) and long jump (865 points).

Her weakest events were 100m (981 points, 5th position) and 200m in which she finished seventh with 790 points. In her last event of 800m she finished fourth on Wednesday to emerge as the overall champion.

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India’s Swapna Barman celebrates after winning the heptathlon gold medal during the athletics competition at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Asked about the tape on her cheek she said, it was to lessen the pain in her teeth.

I used to eat a lot of chocolates, so I have a teeth problem. It started paining two days before the event. It was severe but I could not let years of hard work go waste. So I forgot the pain and gave my best. First day, I thought I won’t be able to compete. It was unbearable. I thought what will happen to my hard work, I had to do it. I forgot the pain.

Swapna Barman

Swapna had finished fifth with a total of 5178 points on debut at the 2014 Asian Games four years ago in Incheon as a teenager.

She sparkled at the Asian Athletics championships last year, where she bagged the gold.

The heptathlon is a seven-event contest which covers a range of track and field events and is spread over two days. The first day comprises 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m, while day two has long jump, javelin and 800m.

(With inputs from PTI)