That's right. A girl managed to get an MBBS seat by taking top honours in the sports category. Eighteen-year old Priyadarshini S secured the first rank in the Sports category for medical seats and is now going to be pursuing her MBBS at Madras Medical College.
Both medicine and sport have been her dreams from a young age and she worked at both for years now. An athlete, Priyadarshini won the second place for two years in a row at the World School Championships held at China and Turkey. She says she's unsure of the number but guesses she has been the National Champion 14 times in long and triple jump. She even secured the 6th place in the Asian Junior Championship in Vietnam recently.
Priyadarshini S, who will pursue MBBS at Madras Medical College
But how is it possible to have such a grilling sports career as well as concentrate on studies? "My life is between school and training. So since I'm so busy, I don't really get the chance to go out as much as other children. But I don't mind it," she added.
Managing school and sport is pretty difficult but managing sport and medicine is a whole other ball game. How is she going to do it? "Well, I have a couple of events lined up next year, I'm going to try and see how I can manage both. Depending on that I'll know how much time I can devote. But the final year is the most crucial year, so maybe I'll be very busy then but first few years I am hoping I would be able to continue participating in events," she says.
Priyadarshini says she's not yet sure as to what specialisation she'll take up," A couple of my cousins are doctors and they've all been advising me that I shouldn't pick a subject now and just decide based on my experience in the next few years. So I decided that I'll decide along the way."