Medals on field, spunk on track

KOCHI:  It were the field events that gifted India all three of its medals in athletics at Gold Coast. However, despite having no medals to show for it, the country’s athletes sprang the biggest surprise on the running track. Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra claimed the yellow metal with a season’s best effort while Seema Punia and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon won silver and bronze respectively in women’s discus, meaning India matched their medals tally from Glasgow four years ago — a gold, silver and bronze apiece.  Neeraj, all of 20 years, set a mark of 86.47m to become the first Indian to win the gold in the event. “He was a sure shot to win and he delivered,” said Kashinath Naik, national coach and the only other Indian to fetch a medal in javelin at CWG — a bronze at the 2010 Delhi Games. 

“Neeraj is now recording 85-metre plus throws consistently but he can still improve. It is only a matter of time before he hits the 90-metre mark. I hope it happens as early as the Asian Games later this year,” said Kashinath. In discus throw, Seema continued to run the show as a 60.41m effort helped her secure a fourth successive CWG medal at the age of 35 while world junior medallist Navjeet won a bronze with a final throw of 57.43m.

On the track, not much was expected of the Indian runners. But Muhammed Anas, a 23-year-old from Kerala, scripted history by becoming only the third Indian after Milkha Singh and GS Randhawa to qualify for the final of a CWG track event. Anas put up an incredibly strong fight in the final as well — only missing bronze by 0.2 seconds and setting a new national record at 45.31 secs. “He could have been in the medals with a proper build-up to the Games,” said PB Jaikumar, his coach at the Kerala State Sports Council. 

“He is daring and is perhaps the fastest Indian in the first 200 metres. But, little time to prepare and adjust to the cooler climate coupled with a wet track adversely affected his performance,” said Jaikumar who wants to convert Anas to a 400m hurdler ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In the women’s 400m, the revelation was Hima Das who clocked a personal best of 51.32 seconds to finish sixth — a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that the 18-year-old has been running the quarter mile for less than six months now. “Hima’s performance was indeed the highlight. She is quick and is perhaps the fastest Asian woman at the moment. With age on her side, she has the potential to go a long way,” said track legend PT Usha.  

Also impressing Usha was Jinson Johnson who took 3,37.86s, a new national mark, to finish fifth in 1,500m. “Apart from the medallists, Anas, Hima and Jinson put in impressive efforts. The rest of the contingent however disappointed,” she said.The major letdown came in the jump events as well as in race walking and women’s relay. Among women, Nayana James and Neena Pinto couldn’t perform anywhere near their best in long jump while Arpinder Singh, a bronze winner in triple jump four years ago, finished fourth. 

“We could have won a couple of medals in jumps, but we failed to deliver at the crucial moment. Women’s long jump is an event where we have won medals previously, but both Nayana and Neena had a bad day,” said World Championship bronze medallist Anju Bobby George. Triple jumper V Rakesh Babu and race walker KT Irfan also added insult to injury after the duo were sent home for infringing the ‘No Needles Policy’. “The suspension does take some sheen off our performance, but we have to appreciate the athletes who were no less than exceptional. Though our medals tally reads the same as four years ago, our performance, especially in 400m and 1,500m were brilliant,” summed up Athletics Federation of India secretary CK Valson. 
adwaidh@newindianexpress.com