India’s Muhammad Anas collapses after finishing fourth in the final of the men’s 400m race on Tuesday. (Source: AP)
After a breathtaking run, Muhammed Anas ran out of breath. He slumped uncomfortably into a chair in the lobby leading up to the changing room and stared blankly at Javon Francis. The Jamaican would take two steps, gasp for breath and take another step forward as he clutched onto his bronze medal. For the two men who’d set the track ablaze with a scorching 400m run, walking 10 yards to the locker room was now proving impossible. “I’ve spent all my energy. I just want to sleep now,” Anas, taking deep breath between words, said.
But sleep, the 23-year-old admitted, would be hard to come by. On a damp evening at the Carrara Stadium, Anas ran one of the most explosive races by an Indian quartermiler. Yet, he fell 0.2 seconds short of winning the country’s first medal in the race since Milkha Singh’s gold 60 years ago.
For someone who came to Gold Coast just for ‘experience sake’, Anas returns with a national record and an enhanced reputation. A nobody in track and field universe, Anas got the world talking about him with fiery runs in the heat and semifinals. Botswana’s Isaac Makwala, the eventual gold medallist, singled him out as a ‘one of the dangerous guys’ in the final whereas American track and field legend Dwight Phillips predicted a podium finish for the Indian.
Phillips’ prophecy didn’t quite come true. Anas clocked 45.31 seconds to finish fourth in a race where, practically, the battle was for the silver and bronze medals. Makwala was so superior than the rest that he won the gold medal without being troubled at any stage, clocking 44.35 seconds. His compatriot Baboloki Thebe took the silver with a time of 45.09 seconds while Francis survived a late surge by Anas to hold on to the bronze medal position by a few milliseconds.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect here. I came just to enjoy the experience. But with each race, I gained in confidence. I could’ve clocked around 45 seconds today but the conditions were tough because of the rain,” Anas said.
On Wednesday, 18-year-old Hima Das will have the opportunity to go one better than her male counterpart. Das, daughter of a farmer in Assam, clocked a personal best time of 51.53 seconds to sneak into the women’s 400m final as one of the fastest losers.
Last-minute inclusion
While she was a surprise inclusion in the Commonwealth Games squad, Anas almost did not make it to the Gold Coast. As per the Athletics Federation of India’s selection policies, athletes who train outside the national camp are not considered for tournaments. It’s done to keep a check on athletes’ training programme, primarily as an anti-doping measure, but quite a few of them choose to be coached by their personal coaches.
Anas trains under his PB Jaikumar in Trivandrum, separate from rest of the Indian track and field team. His name was included in the CWG-bound squad at the last minute, only after he agreed to join the national camp in Patiala.
And it would’ve been a travesty if he were to miss out. Anas, who started out as a long jumper, has been one of India’s most consistent 400m runners in the last two years. He is known for his quick starts, a part of the race that used to be feverishly discussed in the Anas household.
His father Yahiya, a failed track and field athlete, would narrate the story of him crouching barefoot at the start line of a race in Kochi, waiting for the officials to announce ‘go’. But no one had told the man from Kollam that a gunshot meant start. So when he heard the ‘boom’, Yahiya did not react while the rest took off.
The story has had such an impact on Anas that he takes off like a flash every time he hears a gunshot. So quick, in fact, that the race officials for the semifinal checked on him for a false start. So, before the final coach Radhakrishnan advised Anas to take go slightly easy with the start.
Anas was conscious of it but ensured that did not compromise his pace. In his trademark style, Anas sprinted off the blocks and stayed in third position till the half-way mark when he began to fall back. He lost more ground around the final bend, which dragged him to sixth place, but in the final burst of energy he overtook two athletes to eventually finish fourth.