Tripura girl Saraswati Saha (nee Dey) did India proud by winning the gold in the women´s 200 metres in the Busan Asian Games .
Saraswati was born and brought up in Bharat chandranagar near Belonia in a poor family , Saraswati was selected for the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Kolkata at the age of nine in 1989 and settled at Bandel near Kolkata .
The morning session saw Saraswati Saha blaze the track like never before was the slowest off the block , but it was after the curve that she came into her own. Drawn in lane three, Saraswati outpaced Kazakh Victoria Kovyreva and the better known Uzbek Lyubov Pereplova and pulled away for a comfortable win in 23.28 seconds .
Buoyant by Saraswati´s performance , two more Indian women won the gold for India.
Discuss thrower Neelam Jaswant Singh and middle distance runner Sunita Rani winning the gold medals with records .
No sooner , than the news of Sarasati winning the gold reached the small township of Belonia , people rushed to her house to congratulate her father Shaktiranjan Dey .
Born in Bharat Chandra nagar under Chittamara panchayat near Belonia on November 23, 1979 , her talent was spotted by SAI coach at Agartala in 1988. " After qualifying in five events like 30 metres race, 60 metres race , Medicine ball, 500 metres run and cricket ball throw , she was sent to Kolkata for advance training and never looked back " said Dhirendra Debnath, her first coach .
Born in a family of six sisters and a brother , her sister Prajapati is also an athlete at national level .
After studying up to standard V at Manurmukh school ,Saraswati was selected in the National talent search contest in 1989 and went to Krishnanagar Government High School uynder the guidance of SAI .
In 1991, Kolar Sub junior nationals she won the gold in the 100 metres race. She repeated her feat at Jalandhar meet in 1995 but at Junior level with silvers in 200 and 4X100 metres race.
In 1996 , Inter zonal meet at Delhi she won golds for 100 and 200 metres sprint . Again in 1997 and 1998 nationals she won two golds , four silver and one bronze medals.
She made her international debut in 1996 at the Junior Asian Track and Field meet at New Delhi where she won gold in the 4X100 metres event and a silver in the 200 metres race .
In 1998 Asian Track and Field meet at Bangkok she won gold in the 4X100 metres race.
In the Jakarta meet of the Asian track and field events in 2000 , she won a silver .
She also has a distinction of having won four consecutive golds in 100 metres sprint at national circuit meets held at Nagercoil , Thiruvanant hapuram, Chennai and Bangalore .
In Bangalore , she clocked 11.60 seconds , her all time best .
Her husband Amit Saha is a former national champion in Long jump and they married in February 2000 .
Both of them are working in Indian Railways .
ICAT minister Jitendra Choudhury has congratulated Saraswati for her feat saying Tripura also stands besides her on her victory .
" This will inspire the promising yongstars of the state and will help winning medals in international meet " Choudhury said.
Choudhury also pledged to felicitate Saraswati after the Busan games is over .