Come on, Come on! I urged myself. My feet were aching as I ran the final 100 meters of the race. I could hear the crowd cheering, calling out different people’s names. I was running for second place now. Suddenly at the last 10 meters the girl beside me overtook me. I put on a final burst of speed but was not able to regain the second place. Crossing the finish line I collapsed on the ground thankful that the race was over. I was sad on losing the silver in the 400 meters race after winning the gold in the 200 meters race, but was happy to settle for the bronze.
After the medals were given, I spotted my friends in the crowd and walked towards them. Susan, my friend hugged me. “Its ok you weren’t going to get the gold anyways, but you should have at least tried a bit harder for the silver,” she said. “You should have ran faster,” said another friend. The smile on my face vanished as I felt sad that no one thought of congratulating me. Everyone just ended up giving me useless advice and reminding me that I hadn’t won the silver medal. No one seemed to remember or appreciate that after all my hard work, I had won the gold for the 200 meters race and the bronze for the 400 meters race. The attention was only on the fact that I had lost the silver medal.
As I walked towards the exit dejected, one guy walking in the opposite direction stopped and said to me, “Hey, that was impressive! Congratulations!” “Thanks” I replied with a smile. He smiled back, said bye and walked off in the direction he was headed for. I smiled watching him go. I started feeling happier. At least someone had acknowledged my hard work and had congratulated me. It was just one line, but that one line he said seemed to make my day. My heart was swelling with happiness as I walked home humming the tune of my favourite song.
Bernadette Braganza 
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