CHENNAI: Eldhose Paul led India's historic 1-2 finish in the men's triple jump at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday with fellow Kerala athlete Abdulla Aboobacker finishing behind him. But not long before the triple jump national coach Harikrishnan was contemplating switching him to the long jump given his short stature (170cm).
"His height is not preferable for triple jump. I was training Aboobacker since 2018 but started training Eldhose only in October last year when I joined the national camp at SAI centre in Bengaluru," the coach told this daily.
The Ernakulam-born Paul's best jump of 17.03m, also his personal best, came in his third attempt after opening with 14.62m. His jump was though wind-assisted and his second best was 16.63m.
Speaking on the proposed switch, Harikrishnan, who competed in the long jump event for India at the 2010 CWG in New Delhi, informed, "I apprised him of my thought and he was also interested in the long jump. So he even did long jump training in Bengaluru. However, when the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) decided to organise 1st Indian Open Jumps Competition in Thiruvananthapuram this March, we decided to field the best team so that the event continues giving triple jumpers much-needed competitions. Till then his personal best was not that good but at the event, he notched up 16.93m. He improved it further to 16.95m at the Indian Grand Prix. He then made it 16.99m at the Federation Cup. He also achieved the qualification mark set for the CWG that made us think twice before switching to long jump, especially with big-ticket events like CWG and Asian Games lined up."
Harikrishnan then spoke to chief athletics coach Radhakrishnan Nair.
"Radhakrishnan sir told me this is not the time to take risk as he is the medal contender if he continues with his best jump. His advice was spot on as Eldhose created history," added the coach.
Making it a 1-2 finish for India was Aboobacker, whose fifth round jump of 17.02m helped him land a silver medal. Aboobacker has a season's and personal best of 17.19m. Jah-Nhal Perinchief of Bermuda won the bronze with his best jump of 16.92m. The other Indian in the fray, Praveen Chitravel, who came to the CWG as the second best Indian with a season's best of 17.18m, finished at fourth with 16.89m.
The gold also meant the 25-year-old Paul became only the sixth Indian to win a CWG gold since legendary Milkha Singh won it in 1958 in 440 yards. As far as triple jump is concerned, Indian athletes have won four medals in the past editions but this is the first time two athletes from the country have got podium finishes. Mohinder Singh Gill won a bronze and a silver in the 1970 and 1974 editions while Renjith Maheswary and Arpinder Singh finished third in the 2010 and 2014 editions.
Resistance band while running
Harikrishnan said that Eldhose's running style was a big problem as he used to run with legs wide open, not apt for a triple jumper.
"The legs while running was wide open. We used several drills and equipment like a resistance band to keep his legs at the desired distance from each other while running. Again, while running his upper body was falling behind so we had to make it straight as well."
During an interaction after the medal, Eldhose talked about how focused he and Aboobacker were. Even during the competition, they were trying to help each other.
Despite not having good jumps early on, Eldhose said, "I knew I can cross 17m mark and I got a jump finally". They felt that more intense training and exposure trips abroad for competitions would help them improve.