When Jennymol Joy leaped to a record-breaking 5.91 m in the senior girls long jump event on the opening day of the 56th State school athletics meet here, it came as no surprise for her coach N V Nishadkumar.
‘’In my entire coaching career, I haven’t seen many athletes as determined as Jennymol,’’ says Nishadkumar, a coach with the Lakshmibai National College for Physical Education (LNCPE).
‘’I was confident that she would rewrite record books. This is just a precursor to the many wonders she would create,’’ he says.
Attributing the success to her coach and parents, Jenny says the success will nudge her to aspire for bigger heights. Jennymol, who joined LNCPE six months ago to have better training facilities, had a personal best of 5.85 m, achieved two years ago, till Tuesday.
Though she has tried her hand at triple jump as well, Jennymol has no plans to take it up as a competitive item despite recording a decent personal best of 12.75 m in the event.
Satheesh, a coach with SAI Thalassery, who encouraged her to join LNCPE, says Jennymol never gets nervous during events. “She oozes confidence whenever she enters the competitive arena and that quality separates her from the rest of the competitors,’’ he says, adding that her overall performance has improved vastly after joining the LNCPE.
“When Jennymol joined the centre, she was getting just around 5.45 m. Though she has an average height of 168 cm, her hunger for success has helped her to improve consistently,’’ says Satheesh.
Notably, Jennymol’s attempts were devoid of foul jumps on Tuesday. ‘’When she joined the LNCPE, she was facing some technical issues in her run-up. However, she rectified them in no time,’’ says Nishad.
A native of Thiruvalla, Jennymol did her schooling at C Kesavan Memorial School, Koruthodu. Joy and Mini are her parents and she has two sisters.