Guwahati, Feb 23 (IANS) Swimmer Bhumi Gupta suffered a career-threatening shoulder injury during the Khelo India Youth Games (KIUG) in Madhya Pradesh last year and needed surgery, which kept her out of action for almost nine months. The 18-year-old is on a comeback trail and is still far from her best in terms of physical conditioning.

But the Chattisgarh swimmer, representing Chandigarh University, announced her return with a gold, silver and bronze medal on the last day of swimming competition in the 4th Khelo India University Games at the Dr Zakir Hussain Aquatics Complex here late on Thursday.

A trainee of the Khelo India Glenmark Centre in New Delhi, Bhumi won the gold in 200m Individual Medley with a time of 2 minutes 32.43 seconds and then returned to bag a bronze in 100m freestyle and a silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

"The period after my injury was emotionally very difficult for me. But I did not lose hope and came back to train at the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Swimming Complex (under coach Parth Pratim Majumder) after a gap of nine months and decided that I would focus on winning medals at the Khelo India University Games," said Bhumi, who started swimming when she was in third standard under former junior international Jagdish Banik in her home town Bilaspur.

To be eligible to compete in the Khelo India University Games, Bhumi had to first make an impact in the All-India University swimming competition, which served as a qualifying event for the fourth edition of the Games being played across the North East.

"I managed to win medals in the All India University competition and was determined to give my best here. I came to Guwahati to test my progress since returning from the injury and also to prove to myself that I can still push for bigger goals," said Bhumi, whose father Ajay provided her all the moral support with his physical presence.

Bhumi has now set her eyes on the Senior National Championships to be held in July this year and says medals there would be another stepping stone towards her dream of representing India in major international competitions.