about five years ago vadodaras suzan shaikh started learning karate as a form of selfdefence i thought it was important for selfdefence and my family wanted me to learn karate shares suzan but soon her parents jahid and rehana shaikh discovered that she was really good at it and suzan started training under her coaches abbas saiyed and mushira saiyed the decision turned out to be a masterstroke as suzan soon started winning medals at the district and state level soon she was doing well at the national level too earlier this year she stood third at the karate association of indias national level tournament so far suzan has won 22 gold medals at different competitions which includes a few private international eventsthanks to her consistent performances suzan is now getting to represent india at different prestigious events recently she was the only girl from india to be selected in the under17 category representing the country in the 59 kg black belt category at the 11th world karate federation wkf junior cadet and u21 championships in chile although she didnt win a medal at this event held in the last week of october suzan shares participating in any international event is a big learning experience and i am sure it will help me in the future soon she will represent india at the south asian karate championships to be held in dhaka from november 7 excerpts from a chatrepresenting india isnt making me nervousi am looking at this as a huge opportunity because not many karate players get to represent the country at such prestigious events but i am not nervous and i will give it my all earlier this year when i won the bronze at the national championships in guwahati it was a huge confidence booster also karate will be introduced for the first time at the 2020 tokyo olympics if i keep doing well at international events wkf series for the next few months there is a chance of qualifying for the olympics too it wont be easy to achieve but ill try my bestthe government needs to support us moreright now we hardly get any financial support from the government they do have schemes aimed at supporting sportspersons but its not enough currently i am getting 4185 per month from the central government which hardly serves any purpose maybe now that it is an olympic sport the government will support us more otherwise things get very difficult for every tournament that we play abroad we have to manage a lot of expenses on our own for this particular trip i am grateful that my school st marys school gorwa teachers and wellwishers helped me out financially the journey of pv sindhu really inspires me who has achieved so much for india thanks to her determination and hard worki manage to strike a balance between studies and my sportcurrently i am a student of class 12 science and while a lot of people say its difficult