CHENNAI: The second day of the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok was quite fruitful for India. They won three gold, and two bronze. What seems more heartening is that India have made their mark in events where athletes are young and new.
Young sprinter Jyothi Yarraji had a startling run during the 100m hurdles on a wet Thursday. Despite a slip in the seventh hurdle, she managed to maintain her balance and touch the tape in 13.09s. Though the mark was below her national record of 12.82s, she was happy to finish on top of the podium. However, she felt she could have done better in the final where she finished ahead of Japan’s Terada Asuka (13.13s) and her teammate Aoki Masumi (13.26s).
On the other hand, high jump exponent Tejaswin Shankar won bronze with 7527 points in the decathlon. “Winning an international medal at an event that is new and also against athletes who have been pursuing decathlon for years is always cherishing,” said Tejaswin who had won bronze in high jump at the Commonwealth Games last year.Triple jump star Abdulla Aboobacker and middle-distance runner Ajay Kumar Saroj won the other two gold medals. While quartermiler Aishwarya Mishra won bronze with a timing of 53.07s.
The spotlight, however, was on Jyothi, who has been one of the most consistent performers in the last couple of years. After dominating national level events, she slowly started doing well internationally. In fact, the Asian Athletics Championships gold is her first major medal. Though she felt the run-up to Asian athletics was a bit tight, it helped her to learn quite a few things.
“The European exposure trip was quite good and I learnt what needs to be done and where I could improve,” she said. “And here I was confident of doing well and I felt the timing of 13.09s could have been better if there was no rain. I slipped in the seventh hurdle and lost my balance a bit but finally managed to stay ahead of the pack. The win has given me more confidence and I hope to do well at the World Championships and the Asian Games later.”
Though it was hot and humid, Jyothi said the conditions were not alien to her. “It is similar to what we have at home,” she said. “I thought today was my day to better my personal best but just when we were about to start it rained. The foul start did not disturb me as much as the slip in the seventh hurdle. Anyway I was targeting gold here. Hopefully I will keep improving.”
In the middle distance, Ajay stormed to gold after getting boxed half-way through the race in 1500m. Though outside his personal best, the timing of 3:41.51s under the circumstances was credible. His personal best of 3:39.19 came just last month at an event in the US, where he is training. Saroj has been a consistent performer in Asia and with this, he has won three medals including one gold in 2017.
“I want to win a medal at the worlds,” he said. The training stint in the US under foreign coach Scott Simmons too helped. “I have been training in Colorado Springs under (Scott) Simmons earlier this year and that has given me a lot of confidence. I knew that there were two Japanese runners who could run in the range of 3:37 and 3:38. So, I tried to follow them and break away in the final straight.”
For Tejaswin this is a good beginning to an event that he started concentrating on last year after he felt he was stagnating doing the 2.26m high jump. "I tried for 2.30 but could not achieve the mark." Though he is eligible to compete at the Worlds in Budapest next month on ranking, he is yet to decide. "I think on Road to Budapest ranking, I am eligible but I will sit with the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) officials and make a decision. They would know more about whether it would be better for me to compete at the Worlds to prepare for the Asian Games."
He is mindful of the fact that there are quite a few weak links in his event that he needs to improve upon. High jump of course is his 'bread and butter' and horizontal too he is fine but it's in shot-put, javelin and discus where he felt he needed drastic improvement if he has to do well at the global level. As for the Asian Games, he does have a good chance.For the Olympics though he would want to qualify in high jump for one last time and will plan accordingly. In the long run, it's the decathlon that he would compete in at worlds.