There must have been a lot of things running in Lalita Babar’s mind when she finished eighth in the women’s 10,000m at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. The Indian winners were feted in a big way and there was plenty to celebrate, but Lalita went home with a hollow feeling.
Within a couple of years, she was winning big in the marathons (in the Indian category), and earning good money too. In 2014, she won her third straight Mumbai Marathon. But, she still longed for medals at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Asian championships.
Early last year, Lalita, daughter of a farmer from Satara in Maharashtra, switched tracks and attempted the steeplechase. Belarusian Nikolai Snesarev, the successful long distance national coach, was sceptical, but Lalita was determined.
She won her maiden Asian Games medal, a bronze, at Incheon last year with a national record. She beat the Asian champion and national record-holder on the way.
On Saturday, Lalita broke the national record and her personal best again while winning the Asian championship’s steeplechase gold at Wuhan. It helped her qualify comfortably for next year’s Rio Olympics.
But, Lalita would have gone to Rio otherwise too. She clocked her personal best in the marathon, 2:38.21s in Mumbai on January 18 this year, which offered her a berth in the long-distance event. For the marathon qualification standard for the Rio Olympics is 2:42.00s and the entry doors for this event opened early, on January 1 this year.
