Anju turns to Pope for hope

On a more serious note though, Anju and Bobby are trying to eliminate the one big problem that might come in her way of the Olympic podium, the foul jumps.

Like in previous meets, Anju began her quest in Rome with two foul jumps. She barely managed to stay in the hunt with a poor third attempt of 6.41 metres and made two more invalid jumps.

‘‘Yes, the invalid jumps put a lot of pressure on me. I am changing my stride pattern and putting in a shortened run up and that causes the problem,’’ explains Anju.

Anju said she committed foul jumps with only one nail of her spikes overstepping the take off board. ‘‘Otherwise they were all over 6.80 metres,’’ she says.

Dr Sanjeev P Sahni, a sports psychologist with the Sports Authority of India (SAI), however, has an explanation. ‘‘In our jargon it is called pre-competition anxiety,’’ says Sahni. ‘‘It is a natural phenomenon in all sportspersons but it can be corrected by right training.”

Examining the solution, Sahni says, ‘‘A psychologist has to monitor her heart-beat, pulse-rate, body temperature and several other parameters at the time of the jump. And today all this can be done easily with sophisticated gadgets that athletes can even carry in their pockets.’’

It may be too late now for the gadgets to work. What Anju needs now is a crash course to correct her stride pattern. A stride-pattern that can take her to the stand at Athens. The next test is the Madrid Grand Prix on July 17. Will the Vatican have started its work by then?