Gnawing ceaselessly at the body. Then she proffers her fingers and you recoil for they are bent into some arthritic nightmare. Aparna Popat, a Commonwealth silver medallist in badminton, wakes up some days with a body whose parts that don't hurt are in a minority. You seek the pain. It's like a high.
Athletes know, sport is cruel.
No one cares if your father's ill or your muscles ache, when the bell rings and the moment arrives, sport demands an almost impossible confluence of technique, strength and self-belief. You cannot recall a fired bullet, plead for another shot at goal, rewind that missed smash. One second of uncertainty and four years are flushed away. There is no allowance for imperfection. At the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, Mansher Singh was tied with three others for second place.