CHENNAI: For Tamil Nadu’s M Donald, a fourth-placed finish in the triple jump final at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday has not been cause for celebration. Instead, he is ruing the fact that he missed out on a bronze medal by a narrow margin of four centimetres. The 19-year-old triple jumper from Tiruchy notched up his personal best of 15.82m during the course of the final but lost out to France’s Simon Gore, who himself achieved his personal best of 15.85m, in the race for bronze.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Donald, given that all the preparation building up to the junior event was geared towards crossing the 16m mark. “I am very disappointed. I was definitely expecting a medal. Even though I clocked my personal best, I was aiming for a jump over the 16m mark,” Donald told this paper afterwards.
Once the disappointment is out of the way, there is plenty for Donald to take heart from and of course work on. While success in junior events can be an early marker of an athlete’s promise, it is equally important for them to ensure that they don’t let it become the defining moment of their careers.
Donald, whose father is a farmer with a modest income in Tiruchy, seems on the right path with his goal being to make the cut for the 2024 Paris Olympics. In recent years, Kerala’s Renjith Maheshwary — who holds the national record with a jump of 17.30m — has been the pre-eminent triple jumper in the country, having qualified for the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Games. For Donald to follow in these footsteps, he will have to improve over the next couple of years and inch closer to the 17m mark.
He has the right mentor for a start. He is currently coached by KS Nizamuddin — a former triple jumper who won silver at the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games in 1991 — in Coimbatore. According to the 52-year-old national coach, the focus going forward will be to work on Donald’s jump in a discipline also referred to as the hop, skip and jump.
“He will definitely be in the fray for Paris Games. For triple jump, you need age on your side also. It is an injury-prone discipline. We have to train him very carefully. After the age of 18-19, specialised training for triple jump starts. Now onwards, the intensity of training will go up. His jump is very poor. His hop and step are fine, but the technique needs to be better,” explained Nizamuddin.
With the veteran coach for company, there is a good chance that the youngster will be able to take his performance up a notch or two in due course. It is about patience, with Nizamuddin stressing that it will require a lot of hard work over the next two years for his ward to start breaching the 17m mark. But, Donald is not averse to putting in that work. It is exactly why Donald sought the expertise of Nizamuddin three years ago.
“When he was in the 12th standard, he had come for an athletics meet to Coimbatore. He came up to me and requested that he wanted to train under me,” Nizamuddin recalls their first meeting. The former triple jumper assured Donald that he will start training him once the youngster finishes his schooling in Tiruchy. He duly stuck to his word and has also taken care of Donald’s college education and training expenses.
“After his 12th standard, I got him admission at PSG College of Arts and Science in Coimbatore. I just told him to concentrate on his training and keep working hard. He listens to me and is an extremely disciplined boy.”