There is no short cut to success. Even talented athletes who put in a tremendous amount of hard work with missionary zeal fail, more often than not, for want of proper direction.

Only 18 Indians from the huge contingent sent by India have succeeded in their efforts to fetch a medal for the country at the just concluded Asian Games in Busan, Korea.

And, one among them was Bobby Aloysius of Kerala. She lived up to her billing winning silver in the high jump with an effort of 1.88 metres.

Bobby was expecting only the fourth place in high jump with Asia’s leading jumpers. But, she cleared a height of 1.88 meters in first chance, and was honored by the silver medal in 14th Asian Games.

Bobby, who had cleared 1.90 metres at the National inter-state meet this year, started at 1.70M and cleared every height at her first attempt till 1.88 metres. The silver at the Asian Games was poetic justice for Bobby, who was left out of the 1998 Asiad squad and then moved abroad for training.

Denied the chance to compete in Bangkok last time, as the federation excluded her from the team, Bobby was so determined to win a medal that she put everything she and husband Shajan Scaria had into a training programme in Moscow during the past two years.

With arduous training behind her, Bobby had rediscovered the joy of jumping. The defending gold medallist at the Asian Athletic Championship, finished a notch below this time, but the silver medal carried a special meaning to the Indian national champion. The sunny smile was back, so too was the spring in her strides.

“This doesn’t fully erase the disappointment of Manchester. But it puts me in the right frame of mind to train for the Asian Games. Finishing without a medal here would have been disaster,” said a smiling Bobby.

Two years ago Bobby went to court to try to be included in the Indian team to the Asian Games, but she did not succeed in that battle. Then in a bid to go to Sydney in 2000 there was another battle against officialdom. “The Asiad result is a slap in the face of those who cast me out of the team,” she said.