National Open Athletic Championship

National Open Athletic Championship

O P Jaisha again created history by beating the meet record of Preeja Sreedharan in 5000 meters race in the National Open Athletic Meet being held at Kolkata.  Just two weeks ago she participated in the grueling marathon event at the world athletic championship at Beijing and beat her own record. She came in the top twenty where 74 world class athletics participated and also qualified for the Olympics.  Her compatriot Lalita Babar gave a hot pursuit till half way stage and if Lalita would have given a tough competition, Jaisha could have further improved her timings.  This is her 4^th record breaking performance in the year 2015. In the month of January she broke 20 year old marathon record held by Satyabhama, in the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon.  Subsequently she broke the 5000 and 10000 meters record in the national games held at Trivandrum.  The exhaustive marathon training programme of running more than one thousand kilometers per month, took a heavy toll from her, losing 7 KG weight in the process. Weight loss may be good for fatty/bulky people but not for a person already lean and thin.  Credit for this goes to the “nutritional” food provided to her in “adequate” quantity during the training camp. She is confident of improving the 5000 Meters record.  Considering the fact that she competed in 5000 meters race without any training, she is competent to improve upon her timings. She will be participating in the Bangalore Marathon and I am sure that she will emerge victorious.  The prize money she will get will enable her to buy few pair of shoes without draining her depleted pocket.  I am planning to write her biography or help her to write her auto biography which will unravel many stark realities hitherto unknown to the sports world.  Like Priyanka Chopra, who became multi millionaire at the cost of Mary Kom, I will not rob a poor girl and will give 50 % of the proceeds of the book to Jaisha and the balance amount will also be used for the development of sports in the country.

If an athlete can produce scintillating performance without any training and competitive exposure, what wonder she can create with nutritional food, proper training and adequate international exposure is anybody’s guess. All the athletes who have qualified for the Olympics should be provided with much needed international exposure by allowing them to participate in various meets across the world. We have committed the biggest blunder in the case of P T Usha by not sending her any for international meets before the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, whereas her competitors had participated in several meets across the globe. Still, whatever she had achieved is purely due to her grit, will power, dedication, determination and killer instinct. We lost a golden opportunity to win an athletic Olympic medal in 1984. We should not repeat that blunder again.

 Let us fervently hope that Jaisha and her companions will make 2016 Rio Olympics as the most memorable Olympics for them and the country.