Indians show class at World Schools Championships
Just over a month ago, Durga Deore returned from her first trip abroad — Doha, Qatar for the Asian Youth Athletics Championships — with nothing more than a severe bout of depression. She had dreamed of her first ever international tournament to be one with fairytale propositions — a great degree of panache preceding her arrival at the gulf nation before the race, and a glittering gold medal around her neck after the 1,500 metre run. Instead she left India in a weakened physical state after being discharged from hospital for high fever just days before her flight. Her coach wasn’t by her side in Doha, and she felt alone and lost, even while running the race she’d trained for years in advance.
Yet ever since she returned, her coach at the Bhonsala Military Academy in Nasik, Vijendra Singh, decided to work more on the 16-year-old’s mental conditioning than her track tactics.
That was enough for her to win the gold at the World Schools Athletics Championships in Wuhan, China — her second foreign sojourn. That too by setting the new youth national record at 4:33.6. Accompanying her on the trip were Beant Singh and Kisan Tadvi, who were also competing with her in the Indian contingent at Doha, both winning gold medals in their respective events.
In Wuhan too, Beant and Tadvi picked up golds in 800m and 3,000m events respectively. Beant had to struggle though, chasing the front two runners for a majority of the race before accelerating efficiently at the end to gain the lead, clocking 1:52.20. Tadvi, on the other hand, comfortably raced towards victory with an 8:32.59 timing, finishing 30 metres ahead of the runner-up. The boys will be participating in the World Youth Championships in Colombia next month.
But for Singh, who also trains Tadvi, Deore’s win in Wuhan has finally announced her presence on the athletics frontier. Despite dominating the domestic sector of schools national games, she has maintained a low profile for herself. Yet within the silence that she has worked in, Singh asserts a successful future if she makes the right decisions at the right time. One such decision will be a possible shift into the 3,000 metre steeplechase in the future. Standing at an impressive 5”8’, Deore’s body type may well suit the middle distance hurdles event.
“She has an excellent combination of speed and endurance for middle distances. Her height gives her the advantage of long strides. So maybe she might be able to work on the steeplechase in a few years,” says Singh. The delay to move into the new event is based on Singh’s insistence to let his ward’s body develop before any change is made. “We need to know how strong her knee and ankle joints are, which is essential for steeplechase. So we’re going to start working on strengthening the joints in case she will make the shift,” he adds.
Inderjeet, Johnson complete hat-trick
New Delhi: Star shot putter Inderjeet Singh and half-miler Jinson Johnson clinched their third gold in a row as Indians bagged eight medals at the third and final leg of Asian Athletics Grand Prix Series on Monday.
Javeline thrower Devinder Singh added another gold as the Indians also won four silver and one bronze at the Chanthaburi Province Stadium. With today’s gold, both Inderjeet and Johnson completed their hat-trick as they had bagged gold in their respective events in the first and second legs of the series held in Bangkok (June 22) and Pathumthani (June 25). (-PTI)
