When V. Revathi booked her berth in 100m final at the 32nd Junior National Athletics Championship in Coimbatore two months ago, nobody thought she would have a podium finish.
The frail looking girl from Sakkimangalam near Madurai took everybody by surprise clocking 12.24s to grab the gold. She also won the 200m and 4x100m relay gold medals that helped Tamil Nadu finish second in overall championship.
Her insatiable spirit to succeed propelled her to achieve big. And in the recently concluded and more competitive National University Games of the Association of Indian Universities, though she bettered her timing in the 100m clocking 12.08s, she won only the silver.
“The field was much stronger and she could have done better but was overawed by the fellow contestants. She was competing against some established names in the field. But she is an amazing talent and will definitely go places in the years to come,” predicts V. Kannan, her coach.
District Sports Officer S. Murugan
Living in abject penury, Revathi’s only concern was to arrange for two square meals a day. She lost her parents at the age of four and was brought up by her grandmother Arammal, a daily wage labourer. Even though Arammal struggled to feed the young girl, she did not stop from encouraging her. “My grandma was always behind me during tough times. She never dissuaded me from playing,” says Revathi.
It was Arammal who sensed Revathi’s zeal in sports and egged her on to take up athletics. Revathi studied in government school and won medals for her school. She was spotted by Kannan when he noticed Revathi running barefooted on the roads regularly. “I noticed her indomitable spirit in one of the zonal athletics meet and instantly knew this girl would make it big in sports,” says Kannan.
Her agility and speed impressed Kannan. “It is a great quality for a sprinter. Acceleration and sudden speed bursts are two important aspects of sprinting. It all depends how fast you release your foot from the ground after landing. It happens in micro seconds, we coaches try to improve the timing and that has a telling effect in the final run,” he says.
Kannan insists on high knee, front kick and galloping techniques to hone the skills of his wards. He also takes them to Alagarkoil during off season for the high-altitude training routines.
“Traditionally boys and girls from Madurai are athletic. They are tuned to run fast, thanks to rural sports and games like jallikattu, manju virattu and rekla race. Moreover, most of them are not well off and come to sports with a passion to succeed in the bigger arena. That killer instinct helps them train hard and strain every nerve and sinew to come out in flying colours,” says Kannan, himselfa national level athlete trained under international athlete Ramanathan.
Sprinters like Solaimathi, Pandeeswari, Thirunagadurai, Ramanthan, Charles Borromeo, Gnanasekaran, who have made a mark at national and international meets, prove that Madurai is a good breeding centre for athletics.
Sensing the propensity for athletics among youngsters in the city, the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu sanctioned Sprint and Jump Academy to Madurai a decade ago.
“Madurai is blessed with not only potential athletes but also dedicated coaches,” says S. Murugan, District Sports Officer, SDAT (Madurai unit).
“We select athletes based on their performances right from school level. The selected athletes get to train on synthetic track and in addition get Rs.6000 per year as incentive. There are several schemes for the development of sportspersons. We have already spotted higher-secondary studying quarter-miler Naveen for the Champion Development Scheme based on his achievement. He has run 400m under 47 seconds, which is remarkable for a school student. At present there are 108 athletes in the academy,” he says.
It is time the current crop of aspiring athletes translate their promises to results and carry forward Madurai’s rich sprinting legacy.
