KOCHI: It was at the age of 10 that PU Chitra decided she wanted to be an athlete. It was the year that a new star was born at her alma mater Mundur Higher Secondary School. Her name was Nirosha PV and she had become the centre of attention by becoming the 3000-metre champion at the Kerala state school athletics meet that year.
The next day, Chitra went up to the school’s physical education coach NS Sijin and told him that she wanted to win a medal like Nirosha, who had put their small village on Kerala’s sporting map. Chitra, though, wasn’t in it for the fame. Born into a poor family, she saw athletics as a doorway to escape the clutches of poverty and hunger.
The rest, as they say, is history. The little girl from Kerala’s hot and humid Palakkad district started formal coaching in athletics in her sixth standard and brought home medal after medal from state and national school meets between 2009 and 2014. In her final school nationals at Ranchi in 2014, she swept the 1,500m, 3,000m and 5,000m races as well as the 3km cross country!
Chitra’s domination did not end there. Shifting focus to 1,500m, she replicated her success at the 16th South Asian Games in Guwahati and Shillong. Last year at the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship in Bhubaneswar, Chitra clinched gold, stopping the clock at 4:17.92 seconds.
“If you look at her track record, she has gone from strength to strength over the years. She is still only 23, but I think she is approaching the peak of her career. So, we can be confident going into the 2018 Asian Games that Chitra will do her best to win a medal for the nation,” said Sijin, who has been coaching the middle-distance runner for 13 years now.
However, the journey so far has been anything but smooth. When she started, all her school had was an uneven 200m track. As her parents’ earnings barely made ends meet, Chitra did not receive enough nutrition for an athlete growing up and often slept on an empty stomach.
But none of them hurt more than her exclusion from the Indian contingent for the 2017 IAAF World Championships despite her qualifying for the event. “It was like Chitra had her dream crushed. We went to the court, but it was too late. However, we received huge support from the public and Kerala government handed her a scholarship which has been helpful,” said Sajin.
All of which means that the Asian Games will be Chitra’s first major international event. “I’m not thinking about winning a medal. I just want to achieve my best timing,” a softspoken Chitra told Express from the Thimphu Track and Field Centre in Bhutan where the Indian runners are attending a high-altitude training camp.
Chitra booked her Asiad ticket at the 58th national inter-state championships in Guwahati last month by clocking 4:11.55, way better than the qualifying mark of 4:16.88. It is a timing that would have won Chitra silver at the 2014 Games behind Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain who did 4:09.90.
“It’s been a month of training at 2,500 metres above sea level here. The weather is neither too cold nor too hot. Preparations have been perfect so far and I have been touching 4:07.00s which will be the target at the Asian Games,” said Chitra, now training with teammate Monika Chaudhary under national middle and long distance coach JS Bhatia.
“Chitra has already touched 4:11.00s and with the kind of competition expected at the Asian Games, she can only better that timing. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to see her win at least a medal. She will deserve it more than anyone else,” said 2010 Asian Games gold medalist Preeja Sreedharan.
Factfile
Won gold in 1500m at 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar.
Won gold at the 16th South Asian Games in Guwahati and Shillong in 2016.
adwaidh@newindianexpress.com