‘I hope they make special shoes for me’: Swapna Barman after winning Asian Games gold

Swapna Barman's craving for chocolate could well have cost her gold at the Asian Games. Just before her competition began on Tuesday, she started writhing from tooth pain, forcing her to compete with a medicated tape covering her right jaw. “I had severe pain in my right jaw and couldn't take medication because of the stringent anti-doping rules. In fact, I wasn't even sure I would be able to give off my best with this killing pain. But, somehow, I got the motivation over the last two days to win the Asian Games gold,” said the Jalpaiguri girl after clinching the heptathlon gold. “I told myself that if I have to win, I'll have to forget the pain. I was also nursing a right-knee injury and that too was troubling me,” said Swapna who started as a high jumper in 2013 but later moved to heptathlon.