Tracking the new stars: New generation of Indian athletes is making its mark

Vinayak Padmadeo

NEERAJ CHOPRA is without doubt the undisputed king of Indian athletics. His gold medal win in javelin at the Tokyo Olympics and other path-breaking podium finishes, including at the 2022 World Championships, has firmly put men and women of Indian track & field on the world map. While Chopra has attained global stardom, a revolution of sorts is happening in India where many, including long jumper Jeswin Aldrin or steeple chaser Avinash Sable, are now routinely competing against a field of world-class athletes. But there are a few others who are quietly gaining momentum ahead of the Asian Games. We take a look at the next-generation stars, who will take over from many of the established athletes in the years to come.

Jyothi Yarraji, 100m hurdles

A day after Jyothi Yarraji (24) won a silver medal in 200 metres sprint at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok last Sunday, James Hillier, who is the athletics director of Reliance Foundation and her coach, posted a message on Facebook to show his faith in her.

“Another day, another medal. When I put it out before the season that Jyothi Yarraji could win a medal at Asian level in 200m (her personal best at the time was 24.35s and her main event is 100m hurdles), people thought I was mad (I think Jyothi also did). But when you saw what I saw in training, I knew she could do it. Fast forward several months and despite waking up vomiting and with fever, she still managed to run a personal best of 23.13s and win a well deserved silver.”

This was no appreciation post, but a sort of reminder to all that Jyothi can spring a surprise or two at next month’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest (Hungary) in her main event, the 100m hurdles. She was slower than her National Record mark of 12.82s but her timing of 13.09s was enough on a wet surface to get the gold medal at the Asian Athletics meet. Jyothi has been lighting up the tracks since the start of this year as she has gone under the sub-13 seconds several times this year alone.

Next up is her big debut in Budapest. Hillier, who in the past has predicted that Jyothi can get closer to 12.6s, said it is better not to set targets. “Expectations generally end up in disappointment. It would be good to make it to the final but we have to be mindful that other girls have more experience. She is still young and we do not want to put her under the wrong sort of pressure. She is there (in Budapest) by right so let’s focus on the best,” Hillier said.

Jyothi has set different goals for herself in Budapest. “This would be my first time at the Worlds. I have no experience so the target would be to maintain how I am going to perform there,” she said. “Another thing is that I panicked and was nervous in my last race. I was focusing too much on others but this time I will focus on myself and will try to be positive.”

Despite humble beginnings — Jyothi’s father was a security guard and mother a domestic help — the Visakhapatnam-born athlete has never lacked in courage.

Pooja, high jump

It is close to 5 am and Pooja, the reigning silver medallist in Asian Junior Championships, is being put to paces by coach Balwan Patra at Bosti village in Fatehabad, Haryana. The morning routine starts with Surya Namaskar, more yoga and then she has to load up. The equipment is a makeshift contraption made of bamboo, while the landing area is piled up with sacks full of grass to cushion the fall. This is where one of the brightest talents of Indian athletics is currently blooming.

Last month at Yecheon, South Korea, Pooja cleared 1.82 metres to win the silver. This mark is also the new junior national record, bettering the past record of 1.81m set by Rubina Yadav. This is also the best jump by any Indian jumper this year.

The next target is already set in her mind: the longstanding National Record of 1.92m set by Suhana Kumari in 2012. At 16, the daughter of a mason, Hansraj Singh, Pooja has enough years ahead to make her own mark in this discipline.

“Woh record toh mujhe break karna hai (I will break the senior national record). I am confident that I can do it. It will take some time,” says a determined Pooja.

When she won her Asian junior medal, her humble background was highlighted and it made her uncomfortable. She does admit though that till today she is training without standard equipment. “I do not know why it (humble background) is important. Guess the media people know the best. But it is true that I do not have proper equipment to train,” she says.

“I have asked a lot of people, mostly through interviews, to help me but it has not worked till now. I spoke to some government officials and was told to join a SAI or a state government centre to get all the facilities and equipment. But I do not want to leave my coach,” says the high jumper. Her coach Patra, who was a state-level 800m runner, said his protégé Pooja and a few others are on a journey only a few can sustain. “She came to learn yoga but with her build and height, it was clear that she was made for the jumps discipline. We did not have the bars or the landing area for her training and we still do not have it.”

Shaili Singh, long jump

Shaili Singh (19) has to literally walk only a few metres to enter her training facility on the Kengeri-Mysore road, Bengaluru. The facility developed by her coach Robert Bobby George is on the last legs of completion; the only thing left to finish is the installation of floodlights, which would be a big plus for Shaili and other trainees. Once done, they can train at night, a small but a significant factor in an athlete’s development.

“The finals of all major meets take place at night and our athletes do not train at night as we do not have many such facilities. These small details matter a lot. I think it will be done before the Asian Games and Shaili will get to train before heading to Hangzhou,” Bobby said.

Bobby, who had trained his wife Anju Bobby George as well, gives Shaili a target before major events. Ahead of the world championships, the jumper’s target is to achieve anywhere between 6.70 and 6.75 metres in her first three attempts. Bobby reckons this would be good enough to make it to round two in Budapest.

“She has to get past the elimination round and a jump of over 6.70m will be good enough. We are leaving for Budapest early to acclimatise. I have already been to Budapest (with Anju). We know how the crowd will behave, we know the stadium, it is just a matter of how Shaili performs on that day,” he explained.

However, in the lead-up, Shaili was upstaged by Japan’s Sumire Hata, who took the lead with a big jump of 6.74m and then bettered it by 20cm in the final leap to take the gold at the Asian Athletics. Shaili had to be content with a silver as her best jump, her first in the event, was 6.54m.

“First of all, we have to realise that the Japanese girl was better on the day. Shaili was disappointed as she could have done much better but now she is content as this was her first international medal in senior athletics,” Bobby said of her protégé.

Since she caught Covid in March, Shaili has been slowly building back her strength. However, as things showed in Bangkok, she is still some distance away from getting to her peak. “She lost 4-5 kg in body weight because of that. She is lean and the weight loss was all muscle mass. These things really matter. It changes your rhythm and makes it difficult to maintain momentum. However, all is not lost, she is improving as shown by the ranking list. In April, she was ranked over 100, now she is ranked 26th in the world. By the end of the year, we want her to be in the top 10,” he said.

Daughter of a single mother, the Jhansi-born jumper is determined to attain this target.

Jeswin Aldrin, long jump

Only 21, Jeswin Aldrin, who trains at JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) at Vijayanagar, Karnataka, has recorded the best jump of the year (8.42m) in men’s long jump. In fact, he and M Sreeshankar (8.41m) occupy the top two rankings as per the World Athletics’ list. The Tamil Nadu athlete’s best jump was during the Indian Jumps Open in March but since then the performances have dipped. Aldrin caught Covid and he is yet to hit that peak but is slowly building up momentum for the World Championships to be held in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19. He could only register a best jump of 7.85m in Athens on May 24, followed by another average jump by his standards — 7.66m at Chania, Greece.

Rohit Yadav, men’s javelin

Rohit Yadav (22) from UP had won the Federation Cup with his best throw of 83.40m in May and followed it up with 83.28m to win the National Inter-State Championships. Incredibly, he won the Bhubaneswar tournament by attempting only two legal throws. Yadav, who has qualified for the Asian Games, has bulked up his body. He had an early setback in his career after he was suspended for a year in 2018 for using a banned drug, but is consistently registering throws past the 80m mark. His current motivation is to register 85 metres, which may get him near the podium at the Asian Games.

Manu DP, men’s javelin

Another athlete from the javelin stock who is trying to break away from the shadow of Neeraj Chopra, Manu DP like Rohit Yadav has been very consistent over the last 12 months. At the recent Asian Athletics Championship, he secured a silver in his last throw. Manu (23) held off Pakistan’s Yasir Muhammad, whose last throw of 79.93m had pushed Manu to the third spot. The Hassan-born thrower finished second by registering a throw of 81.01m. Manu is also in the race to participate at the World Athletics Championships as he is ranked 17th. Top 36 in the world will be in fray. The Budapest meet will perhaps be the first time where three Indians — Neeraj Chopra, Rohit Yadav and Manu DP — will compete together, which is the longstanding dream of the reigning Olympic champion Neeraj.

Avinash Sable, steeplechase

Maharashtra’s Avinash Sable (29) would have never imagined that his 6-km run to school every day would make him India’s best steeplechaser. Never keen on sports, he joined the Army after Class XII. It is there that he got to know about the athletics programme and began participating in cross country race in 2015. Two years later, he switched over to steeplechase, shining soon after — he finished fifth at the 2017 Federation Cup. In 2022, he won a silver at the Commonwealth Games.