Sprint to success

BENGALURU: When 18-year-old athlete Priya H Mohan left Bengaluru last week to participate in the interstate Senior Athletics Championship in Patiala, there was an air of confidence. After all, running a 400 m race is second nature to the youngster. She flew alongside coach Arjun Ajay and her father, with the former trying to keep her in a positive frame of mind. It was much required as it was her first senior athletic meet where she would be competing against the best in the country.

Earlier in the week, the Bengaluru girl came up with an effort to win a gold (clocking her best at 53.29s) on field, which comprised names like seasoned campaigner from Karnataka, Poovamma. So, this gold medal for Priya is the fruit of the hard work. After returning from the high altitude training in Ooty in mid-April, she had to look for an alternative place to train in the city with the track at Sree Kanteerava Stadium getting relaid. It was made more difficult due to the lockdown during the second wave. However, they got the permission to train at Sri Jayaprakash Narayan National Youth Training Center in Vidyanagar, 40km away from Priya’s home.

During training,Priya clocked the 53.5 mark in the 400m. Arjun expected her to run around the 52.5 mark in the Patiala meet. “If you look at the athletes in the 400m race, there were runners with good experience. With it being her first senior nationals, there was pressure about running with senior athletes. She did not know how to pace herself in the first 200m, else the final timing could have been even better when,” Arjun told CE from Patiala.

The youngster, who is ranked world number 27 in the U-20 category in the 400m, has been taking rapid strides. In fact, this meet in Patiala was her third this year. In the other two -- the Junior Nationals in Guwahati and the South Zone Junior Championship in Calicut -- she walked away with the gold in the 400m. “I could have done better than this (53.29s). I am a little disappointed. I was aiming for a timing of around 52.5s,” she says. With her new personal best, Arjun feels that the Athletics Federation of India should look into the matter and they can also consider her for Tokyo in the 4x400 mixed relay team. “It all depends on them.”