FORMER Team GB athlete Sabrina Sinha has opened up on her “terrifying” stalker ordeal.
The middle distance runner was tipped as a future star after winning a silver medal at the Under-18s European Championship in 2016.
Sabrina Sinha has opened up about her “terrifying” stalker ordeal[/caption]
But soon after her incredible performance, she was targeted by a stalker.
Sinha bravely told The Sports Agents: “Around about the time I started to have a stalker, I had just come off European youths. So I was under 18, so a minor at the time.
“I was busy with my final year of sixth form, but I was pretty much at my career high.”
After graduating, she was going on holiday with friends when she was started receiving horror messages.
Sinha explained: “He sent me death and rape threats, which were not nice at all.
“That was direct to my email. I was so shocked by it. I just assumed it was spam originally.”
It later transpired that her stalker had being targeting her online for several months.
The man from the US was eventually hit with a 14-year prison sentence for cyber-stalking several women.
But the impacts of what happened heavily affected Sinha, who “isolated” herself out of fear at university.
She said: “My whole life changed. Until he was caught, I wasn’t allowed to be alone because we did not know what this guy was going to do.
“You’re just literally staring at everyone being like, ‘Could it be this person?’
“I was actually really fortunate, because he ended up being all talk, which is a terrible reality to say, that I was fortunate that all I got was threats.
“I ended up falling out of love with athletics. I took a step back. I am still running, but I’m enjoying it because I’m not in the public light.”
She has since spoken out against the behaviour she was a victim off, saying, “As a female athlete I spent my life being subjected to harassment just running along the roads, even from the age of 12-years-old.”
Emma Raducanu has been the subject of a similar ordeal after being targeted by a man “exhibiting fixated behaviour” last month.
The 2021 US Open champ burst into tears during a match at the Dubai Open after the individual was spotted courtside.
Raducanu returns to action at the Indian Wells later this week with increased security.
