Praveen Chitravel, a farm labourer’s son from Tamil Nadu, clinched the bronze medal in the men’s triple jump in the ongoing Youth Olympics here on Tuesday.
The 17-year-old, who hails from a village in Thanjavur district, cleared a distance of 15.68m to finish fifth in the Stage 2 competition on Tuesday night but his good showing in Stage 1, where he was third with a jump of 15.84m, took him to the podium with a combined effort of 31.52m.
Alejandro Diaz of Cuba won gold with a 34.18m (17.14+ 17.04) while Emmeanuel Oritsemeyiwa (16.34+15.51) of Nigeria came second.
Praveen was a gold medallist in the inaugural Khelo India School Games and won a silver at the junior Nationals in Coimbatore earlier this year.
“Praveen has the talent and he is very hardworking. I want to groom him as a National champion and then represent the country in the Asian Games and the Olympics,” said Indira Suresh, an athletics coach at the Centre of Excellence for Boys in Chennai, who has mentored the young star and trains with him at Nagercoil.
“He rarely goes home, and so his father comes to meet him,” added Indira.
