Twenty four years after she stunningly won four gold medals at the Asian Games in Seoul, P.T. Usha is still a student of the sport.
At 46, she is frequently experimenting, clutching her stopwatch, cooking up new track strategies, trying to make her star trainee Tintu Luka run that wee bit faster.
Even while she's pushing her, Usha is very careful, lest she adds on to the pressure.
“It's tough being a coach,” Usha frankly admitted once. “It's much easier being an athlete, you just run for yourself.”
At the recent Delhi Commonwealth Games, as she watched Tintu lose control of the 800m midway through the second lap, Usha appeared to choke. A little later, both the coach and trainee were in tears.
In sharp contrast, Mayookha Johny, normally a bright smiling star during competitions, does not break down when she comes up with a series of weak jumps in long jump in Delhi.
The girl who is tipped to take over from world championship medallist Anju George, had hurt her ankle only a couple of days earlier in the triple jump opener and clearly it troubled her. But when she comes empty-handed, Mayookha hides her emotions, puts on a steely mask and just walks away.
The Commonwealth Games may have appeared like a dream for M.A. Prajusha who won a surprise long jump silver but for two of the country's brightest athletes, Delhi was a big flop. A chapter they would like to quickly forget.
Well, Tintu and Mayookha will have a chance to wipe away the Delhi disappointment this Sunday when the Asian Games athletics action begins at Guangzhou.
And despite the Chinese charge in Asian sport, India will be looking at a few Kerala athletes to bring some of the most sparkling medals from Guangzhou.
Kerala's Tintu and men's triple jumper Renjith Maheswary who picked a bronze in Delhi with a personal best 17.07m, are the best Asians in the world list this year. They will begin their events as sort of top seeds. And with Uzbekistan's Asian topper Yuliya Tarasova's name missing from the entry list in Guangzhou (it figures only in the heptathlon), Mayookha also moves to the top of the pack in women's long jump.
Asian Games record
Tintu's best this year time, particularly, stands out. Nobody has run faster than the 21-year-old at the Asian Games.
Her personal best, the 1:59.17 secs run in Croatia while finishing fifth at the Inter-Continental Cup (formerly known as the World Cup) in September, is much faster than the 800m Asian Games record of China's Qu Yunxia (1:59.85s) which came at the 1994 Hiroshima Games.
Unfortunately, as a senior colleague often reminds me, medals don't pan out according to lists. Tintu and Renjith Maheswary, who has suffered some shocking dips in form in a dramatic career, went empty-handed at the Asian Championship in Guangzhou last year while Mayookha skipped the event with an injury.
Thankfully, as the Commonwealth Games, where Indians had a rich haul of 12 track and field medals, prove, some days are different. They offer hope.
A few months ago, Renjith's Italy-based coach Shvilli Evgeniy had predicted that his athlete would cross 17.35m in Delhi and 17.45 at the Asian Games. Renjith may be far away from these goals but nobody is complaining. The triple jumper was in impressive form at the Commonwealth Games, shattering his own national record with a personal best 17.07m. A similar effort in Guangzhou could see him winning a medal, even gold.
The 24-year-old is the only Asian to cross the 17-metre mark this year. The presence of China's Li Yanxi, the defending Asian Games champion who set the Asian record (17.59m) at the Chinese National Games last year and at least three other men who had crossed 17m last year – China's Shuo Cao, South Korea's Kim Doekhyeon and Kazakhstan's Ektov Yevgeniy – along with Asian champion Roman Valiyev (Kazakhstan, personal best 16.98) could make the event a thriller. Li Yanxi has a best of only 16.67m this season.
A problem for Indians
Li Yanxi's girlfriend Xie Limei, the former Asian record-holder from China, will be troubling India's new national record-holder Prajusha in women's triple jump where Kazakhstan's Asian record-holder Olga Rypakova starts favourite.
Sadly, despite the Commonwealth Games high, many of the athletes have not had much time to rest. A series of felicitation functions have also played havoc with the training schedule of many.
Mayookha, meanwhile, has decided to give up the triple jump in Guangzhou to brighten her chances of a long jump medal. However, there is a lingering feeling that her recovery from the ankle injury is still not complete, that she is away from her best.
With the London Olympics two years away, one just hopes our athletes pass the Guangzhou test with flying colours.
