Lakshadweep’s first international track star, Mubassina Mohammed, out to conquer the world

Mubassina Mohammed’s family, especially her mother Dubina Bano, knew that her eldest daughter would prosper in track and field. What she did not know was how quickly she would rise to the challenge.

All of 19, Mubassina from Minicoy Island (Lakshadweep) will become a full India international when she takes part in the women’s long jump final at the ongoing South Asian Senior Athletics Championships in Ranchi on Sunday.

What started as a dream from a mere 200m mud track in Minicoy, Mubassina’s journey towards becoming the first-ever Indian track and field international from Lakshadweep is inspirational.

Running came naturally to her as her father Mohammed — who plucks coconuts and runs a small tea hotel — would take part in mini marathons to win prize money. Her mother wanted her to be a track star. In 2015, while a Class V student, Mubassina won a 6km mini marathon — beating adults in an open competition — and took home gold, as well as prize money of Rs 1 lakh.

“My mother had the confidence that I can also do it as my father also used to run mini marathons,” Mubassina said of her early years.

The journey was far from straightforward. The young girl was involved in everything — from participating in 15km runs to competing in 600m local events and even trying her luck with javelin competitions. In 2017, she clinched a bronze medal at the South Zone Competition. Despite her early successes, regular training became a daily challenge. Initially, she had to take a ferry from Minicoy to Kavaratti Island to train with her coach, Ahmed Javad Hassan.

To help her train regularly, the entire Mohammed family shifted base to Kavaratti for two years. Problems never got over. “We would share the track area with footballers. If they were playing, then I couldn’t train. Similarly, when it rained, training stopped,” she recalled of her struggling days.

In the meantime, she continued to compete in various track and field events. Three years ago, she began training for the heptathlon. At the 2022 Youth Asia Championships held in Uzbekistan, she secured a silver medal in heptathlon and a bronze medal in long jump.

She then left Lakshadweep twice to receive specialised training — first in Calicut Academy and then to Trivandrum — but returned back because she was homesick.

“I did not like the food and I was also homesick, so I returned back. Then, two years ago, my coach, Ahmed Javad Hassan, informed me that Robert Bobby George sir wanted to train me. But I was hesitant to leave Lakshadweep," she said.

In between, she had to fight her inner demons, including taking her first ever flight to take part in a junior trial that was held in Odisha in 2021. “Bahut darr laga tha us din (I was scared). Now I am used to flying,” she said with a big laugh.

Base in Karnataka

From being a reluctant trainee, Mubassina has now joined the Anju Bobby Sports Foundation and is training with Robert, popularly known as Bobby in Bengaluru, Karnataka, for the last two months.

Bobby is mindful that her newest ward is different but knows that this Minicoy girl can sparkle at the world stage. The first brief interaction between the Dronacharya awardee coach and Mubassina was during the Youth Nationals that was held in Bhopal in 2022. There, a young Mubassina jumped 5.73m and beat Bobby’s trainees to the gold medal.

“Lakshadweep officials got in touch with me and asked me to look at Mubassina. They thought she had big potential; but when I got in touch, she was reluctant to leave the island,” Bobby said.

“Early this year, she contacted me again and we took her under our wing. She is now training alongside a group that includes Shaili Singh and a few others. She has shown early promise, but we must handle her carefully since we’ve lost big talents in the past due to issues like burnout. Right now, I’m happy to be a part of her journey — her rise from a small island to this level is very rare,” he added.

The results are already showing as early this month, Mubassina jumped 6.36m — her personal best — in the Indian Open U-23 Athletics Competition to win the gold medal.