KOCHI: New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was brimming on the edges, packed with a capacity crowd of 85,000, and a warm sun helped the temperature to 19 degrees despite the onset of winter in November 1982.
At the starting point for the 400m hurdles, though, was a 22-year-old M D Valsamma oblivious of the grand setting and with little idea she was on the verge of rewriting India's athletics history.
She had been building up for two years. At their training base in Patiala, Valsamma, along with contemporaries Shiny Abraham, Mercy Mathews and P T Usha, was doing the extra mile ahead of the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games and 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
"400m hurdles was a relatively new event and I was told that a timing of below 58 seconds could get me on the podium. I had to skip lunches for over a year in order to train thrice a day," reminisces Valsamma.
On the day though, what disturbed her was the start from the final lane which would make her unaware of her standing for the larger portion of the race. "Lanes are assigned on the basis of timings now, but we drew lots then and I was left to rue my luck," Valsamma says.
She did not crumble and long time coach A K Kutty was influential during the dire strait. "Kutty sir did all he could to motivate me and asked me to concentrate on my own race rather than worrying about other runners,” she says.
However, it wasn't as straightforward a task as that. Japan's Yumiko Aoi and China's Liu Giuhua were favourites and Valsamma had got a taste of them during the previous year's Asian Track and Field Championship in Tokyo where she was restricted to a bronze by the duo.
"After negotiating the final curve and approaching the penultimate hurdle, I could see Aoi was fractionally ahead of me. So, I gathered myself and gave my 100 per cent for the final dash," Valsamma remembers.
What followed was a mix of emotions -- elation, fulfillment and disbelief. Valsamma had become the first ever Malayalee woman and only the second female Indian to win an Asian Games gold, 12 years after Kamaljeet Sandhu won it in 1970. Valsamma was moulded as an athlete at Mercy College, Palakkad, by Kutty and would go on to win a relay gold in the 1986 Asian Games and reach the final of LA Olympics in 4x400m relay before shifting her attention to sprints.
Working with the Railway Claims Tribunal at Ernakulam after retiring from athletics, Valsamma still religiously follows Indian athletes.
She endorses Ashwini Akkunji for a win in Incheon though she had failed to enter the 400m hurdles final at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014.
"I am also confident about the 4x400m women's relay team. I hope M R Poovamma, Arpinder Singh, Seema and Krishna Poonia and Vikas Gowda also perform well for India," said Valsamma, who was bestowed with the Arjuna award in 1982 and the Padma Shri in 1983.