Around this time last year, V K Vismaya felt she was not good enough to run the Senior Nationals. She had tried the Junior Nationals, did not hit it big there, and was just content doing the university circuit.
But life took aninteresting turn for the young girl at the Varsities Nationals in Guntur last December. Running the 400m, the Assumption College athlete gave a scare to Jisna Mathew, the Asian senior bronze medallist, before taking a sparkling silver.
That gave her new confidence. She had not even done the Senior Nationals but suddenly, she wanted to run in the Asian and World Championships!
“That inter-university meet in Guntur was the big turning point in my life. Everything started there,” said Vismaya.
Interestingly, the stars were all lined up in her favour at Jakarta during the Asian Games. Being a non-camper, Asian 400m champion Nirmala Sheoran was not considered for the women’s 4x400m relay team while Tintu Luka, who had played a big part in India breaking the Games record at the 2014 Incheon Asiad, and Anilda Thomas, who ran the relay at last year’s London Worlds, were both out with injuries.
That meant there were at least two vacant berths in the relay team. And Vismaya earned her spurs quite impressively. Just a day before the start of the athletics events, as the other countries were fine-tuning their act, the Athletics Federation of India held a trial at Jakarta to fill up the last relay team berth. Vismaya shocked young Jisna Mathew, the Asian bronze medallist who had been to the Olympics and the Worlds, there and grabbed her relay seat.
Golden debut
A few days later, when Vismaya, ran the relay final, she felt like she was in a dream. For there she was, anchoring India to gold, shocking favourite Bahrain, a team packed with Africa-born runners.
“I can’t believe this, I can’t believe this…this is my first major international meet and here I am with the gold,” said Vismaya at Jakarta. She was clearly in a daze.
Jinson’s revenge
A couple of days before Vismaya’s big run, Jinson Johnson was in a daze too. Not with joy though. For, as the Asian leader was about to deliver his final kick and sprint to an expected gold in the 800m, he was shocked to see his teammate Manjit Singh flying past him to the title.
How did he manage that? I’ve not seen him do anything of that sort before. These were probably some of the thoughts that were going through in the Kozhikode-born middle-distance runner’s head after what was perhaps the ‘race of the Games’ as far as India was concerned.
Clearly, Manjit had a new magical weapon that Armyman Jinson had not seen before. But when he ran the 1,500m later, Jinson was prepared for it and won comfortably, finishing with a gold and silver in Jakarta.
With countries like Bahrain and Qatar fielding African-born athletes, for the last few editions the Asiad is more like the Afro-Asian Games.
Asian champion Muhammed Anas saw the full force of the African power in his three events – the 400m, the men’s 4x400m relay and the mixed relay – where he was done in by world-class quartermilers from Qatar and Bahrain – and finished with silver in all of them.
Ethiopian trap
That was the case with P U Chitra too in the women’s 1,500m. Bahrain’s two Ethiopian-born stars Kalkidan Befkadu and Belay Tigist, who had been to the Olympics and the World Championships, came up with sudden bursts of speed, a strategy that undid the Kerala girl as she took bronze.
There were no such African headaches for long jumper V. Neena but in Jakarta she noticed one girl who had been torturing and tormenting her for the last couple of years. That was Vietnam’s Bui Thi Thi, a name that virtually sounded like Bye-Bye to the Kerala girl and her gold medal chances.
“I’ve been competing against her for the last two years and every time, she has been finishing ahead of me,” said Neena, who had started as one of the favourites for the gold.
It was very close at the Bhubaneshwar Asians last year with Bui Thi Thi taking the gold ahead of Neena. And it was no different at Jakarta.
Run-up trouble
There were some disappointments too. Palakkad’s 19-year-old M. Sreeshankar could not reproduce the sort of big jumps he was throwing up during training and had to be content with sixth place in the men’s long jump though he was close to his personal best with 7.95m.
“My approach run did not go very well there,” said Sreeshankar, India’s brightest talent in the long jump.
For sure, Sreeshankar’s maiden Asiad experience will see him emerge stronger in the years to come.
Meanwhile woman long jumper Nayana James, the Bhubaneswar Asiad bronze medallist, continued her dismal run and finished 10th with 6.14m.
Kerala certainly had an impressive haul in Jakarta with its athletes featuring in eight of India’s 19 medals in athletics, including two golds. Overall, it turned out to be a memorable Asiad for Kerala.
