PATIALA: All eyes were on Arpinder Singh. The 26-year-old, who had won men’s triple jump gold at the Asian Games last year, recently shifted base to California to train under Jeremy Fisher. But Singh, who revealed he won’t take part at the upcoming Asian Championships in Doha, did not live up to expectations. A best of 16.34m meant he didn’t finish on the podium.
Saturday’s glory in the Federation Cup went to Praveen Chitravel, whose 16.51m set a national junior record. The 17-year-old’s mark also meant he booked a spot at the Asian meet in April (qualifying mark was 16.50m). Chitravel, who got bronze at the Youth Olympics last year, twice broke Singh’s previous junior mark of 16.45m in less than 10 minutes.
Chitravel said he was pleased but fell short of own expectations. “I was targeting around 16.80m. But I am obviously happy to have met the Asian qualifying mark.” In the Tamil Nadu lad’s surreal story — his father is a daily wage farm labourer — there has been a significant development.
After winning gold at the inaugural Khelo India Games last year, he followed his coach Indira Suresh, when the SDAT employee was transferred to Nagercoil. That was before the Inspire Institute of Sports, a JSW Sports training centre, scouted him and brought him under their wing late last year. To state the obvious, it’s had the desired effects.
One only needs to listen to Anthony Yaich, the French coach taking care of Chitravel at IIS. “He has the potential to go a long way,” Yaich said. “Even if there are a few flaws, he could well be India’s future.”
Yaich, who has polished athletes the world over to make them Olympians and World Championship finalists, inserts a caveat.
“He needs to learn to control his speed on the runway and his hand movements when he takes off is wrong. I will change those once he completes the current cycle of events (World University Games in July). Technique wise he is at 60%. He is also doing a few mistakes on the second step... he is losing his balance there.”
While Chitravel, whose next target is the World Juniors next year, is mindful of that fact, he accepted that he is able to feel that he has improved over the last few months. “I have improved. I have had a supportive family, good coaches... good support system.”
It’s a system that includes watching clips of Jonathan Edwards’ world-record leap. “I show clips of his leap almost daily,” Yaich said. “He was perfect. Speed on the runway, balance for the second jump, landing.” The ultimate challenge for Chitravel is simple. From watching his favourite jumper to emulating him.