Asha Ilango lost a triple jump bronze at the Asian Games to China’s Li Yi on countback. It broke her heart but she has quickly left the disappointment behind, winning the National Open Athletics Championships gold medal here with a meet record of 13.89m.
The disappointment may still linger, but Asha can also see some positives. One is that her family has stopped talking about her marriage.
“My parents, everyone in the family and the elders, would always talk about marriage. Whenever I was injured or not performing well, the topic would be that I should get married. I was fed up. I asked them to give me six months and said I would return with a medal from the Asian Games. Though I lost the medal and it was tough, they are not bothering me now. They are encouraging me to continue,” Asha,27, told HT.
In Aichi-Nagoya, Asha’s best effort was 13.83m, the same as Li Yi’s. However, the Indian athlete missed out on the bronze on countback after her second-best jump of 13.65m fell short of Li’s 13.79m.
“It was so close, just centimetres. That’s how tough sport is. I have been putting so much effort into the triple jump for 10 years, and only now have I started getting results, since last year. There have been several injuries. I had an ankle injury last year and was sidelined for four months.
“I came back and qualified for the Asian Games, and to come so close to a medal and not have it was very tough. I could not sleep for days,” said the Madurai girl.
But then she decided to compete at the National Open Athletics Championships here and came out smiling on Thursday.
“It feels so good to break the meet record here. It shows that I can do much better.”
The earlier meet record, which came in 2015, was held by Mayookha Johny at 13.78m. Johny also holds the national record of 14.11m.
While Asha won the gold, there was a surprise in the triple jump as Shaili Singh made her debut and won bronze with a jump of 13.31m. The silver went to Bhairabi Roy (13.36m).
Shaili, who specialises in the long jump, is excited about adding a new discipline.
“It was surprising that I won a medal on debut. I wanted to try out the triple jump and it was very exciting. I enjoyed myself. Going forward, long jump will continue to be my priority, but I will also keep doing triple jump,” she said.
Her coach, Robert Bobby George, was guiding her from the sidelines.
“She has been doing triple jump in training, so we thought, let’s try it out in competition. She is light and her physique will suit triple jump. We want to try it at the National Games as well next year and see how she progresses. Having two events will keep her interested as well,” he said.
Shaili finished fourth in the long jump at the Asian Games. At one point, she was in medal contention but was unhappy with the measurement of her fourth attempt, which was recorded as 6.42m.
In the women’s discus, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Seema Kaliramna won gold with a throw of 57.63m. Nikita Kumar was a distant second with 52.48m. At the Asian Games, Seema produced a personal best of 59.88m but finished fourth.
Delhi’s Nirbhay Chaudhary, who set a national record in hammer throw (71.02m) at a meet here last month, won gold with a heave of 69.42m. Praveen Kumar took silver with 67.37m, while Ashish Jakhar won bronze with 66.86m.
Pole vaulter Kuldeep Kumar, who had also just returned from the Asian Games, registered a best of 5.30m to win. Regan G finishing second at 5.25m and Rambeer third at 5.10m. Kuldeep’s personal best is 5.45m.
Dev Meena, also from Madhya Pradesh, missed the competition after a long season in which he broke the national record multiple times, including at the Asian Games, where he cleared 5.50m. Dev finished seventh in Aichi-Nagoya.
“We are going into the off-season now, where we will work on their speed and explosive strength and come back with better performances next season,” said Dev and Kuldeep’s coach, Ghanshyam Yadav.
“The target is to qualify for the LA Olympics, and for that we have to keep pushing the bar,” he said.
