When he crossed the finish line first in the men’s 800m race, Sajeesh Joseph was nearly two seconds and about 20 yards ahead of the rest of the field. Joseph, representing Kerala, finished with at time of 1 min 46.81 seconds. That was enough to clear the old meet mark of 1:47.74 set eight years ago. It was also the fourth fastest ever run over the same distance on Indian soil. It is the third fastest time this year at the Asian level.

For Joseph and his coach Ajit Markose, it was proof that a decision made at the start of the year — to compete on international circuit out of his own pocket — had begun to pay off. While Joseph regularly won competitions in India and at the Asian level, his timings were still ordinary at the world level and he showed no sign of breaking the 1:47:00 barrier. In 2008, when he was 21, Joseph had run the 800m in 1:47.45, and at 27 this year his personal best had stagnated at 1:47.34.

“I wasn’t happy simply winning medals with a time of 1:53.00 and then people saying that Indian middle-distance running was finished,”he says. By the end of 2013, Joseph, who had trained under a number of coaches including Nikolai Snesarev — had a new coach in Markose, Anju Bobby George’s brother, and with it a new set of plans.

“Sajeesh was always a fast runner but he lacked endurance. So over the off season, I worked on it. I had him run the Kochi half-marathon. His target was to finish ahead of Preeja Sreedharan, and he just about managed to do that,” jokes Markose.

But Markose and Joseph’s big decision was to compete in Europe. “If you take part in just one international competition, its difficult to figure out if you are doing something wrong. So you need to keep competing to improve,’ says Markose.

But while lack of regular international competition has for long been the bugbear of Indian athletes, few have actually done something about it. Joseph, though, put his own money on the line to pay for competing in five European Grand Prix in Belgium, Finland and Sweden. “Ultimately I spent Rs 4.5 lakh which I had won in prize money over my career. There’s no point complaining that you are not getting enough exposure and then waiting for someone else to provide it for you. The career span of an athlete is limited so you have to back yourself if you believe,” says Joseph.

While the AFI gave Joseph the much-needed NOC without which he could not leave the national camp, it was the athlete and his coach who had to keep calling the organisers to make sure they got entry in the races. “You had to wait for the application window to open and then you had to quickly send in your application and hope it will be accepted. And we had to keep calling them and pestering them to get the permission to race,” says Markose.

Joseph took part mostly in the B-races, which are meant for athletes who race between 1:48 and 1:49 (the A-races are for the elite runners who finish inside 1:45:00). “I also got a chance to interact with some of the best 800m runners in the world. I observed how they paced themselves and where they made their move during a race. I only won one race (with a sub-par timing of 1:49: 00 range ) but I learned a lot from there.

What coach Markose learned simultaneously was that Joseph had to work on his speed endurance — the amount of time he could maintain his top speed – and modified his workout accordingly. At Patiala, Joseph benefitted from the fact that another runner — Manjeet Singh — started an early sprint. “He set the pace for the first 600m but the fact that I had built up my speed endurance meant that I could use him as a pace setter. But even if he hadn’t, I would still have gone out and attacked at the start,” says Joseph.

For all Joseph’s performance, his time was still short of the AFI minimum standard of 1:46:48 — just shy of the 2012 Olympic qualification standard. However, AFI secretary C K Valson said the athlete deserved a chance. “Sajeesh ran a really good race. His timing immediately puts him in the medal bracket of the Asian Games. I would believe that when the selection committee meets on the 20th to decide the squad for the Asian Games, he will certainly get a look in,” he said.

Jithin stuns Abraham

Jithin Paul ran the 400m hurdles in 50.48 seconds to beat 2010 Asiad gold medallist Joseph Abraham (50.75) to second place. However, with both athletes finishing below the AFI qualification standard of 51:34seconds, there is a strong possibility that both athletes could earn a ticket for the Incheon Asian Games.