INTERVIEW - Santhi turns to coaching after suicide bid

By Sanjay Rajan

CHENNAI (Reuters) - Distraught after a failed gender test that led her to attempt suicide, Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan has turned to coaching and transferred her dreams to her new charges.

"One of my students will win a medal in the 2014 Asian Games," Santhi told Reuters in an interview. "That's my dream, that's what I am working towards."

Santhi was stripped of her women's 800 metres silver medal in the 2006 Asian Games after failing a gender test and was admitted to hospital last September following a suicide bid.

"I was shattered by the failed test," she said in Tamil. "The Athletics Federation of India did not support me, did not fight my cause. I was hoping they would. I was depressed.

"I felt like I had lost everything. It still hurts. I loved the sport so much. My dream broken, I attempted suicide."

The 28-year-old athlete found hope in coaching as she struggled to recover from the traumatic experience.

"My sports career had ended, but I wanted to stay in the only thing that I know -- athletics. That's the reason for my re-entry," she said.

Two months after her suicide attempt, Santhi launched her own academy in her home town of Pudukkottai in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.