Anju146;s Leap

These weren8217;t modern fibreglass hurdles, but ancient heavy wooden ones that bruised your knee when you brushed them. If you were lucky, in the first place, not to have your legs knocked out from under you.

8216;8216;In those days of cinder tracks,8217;8217; Sister Gracelin explains, 8216;8216;athletes, especially women, wore spikes as graceful as dancing shoes. The spikes made them run on the balls of their feet, almost up on their toes; just tying them on made them feel lighter and faster, as if they were attaching winged heels.8217;8217;

There are normally three strides between each hurdle if one runs them right, but in the nun8217;s dream, all that the girl needed was a single stride before she8217;d skim the next hurdle. 8216;8216;And then I would realise,8217;8217; adds Sister Gracelin, 8216;8216;she didn8217;t need to touch down at all. She could glide from hurdle to hurdle, and the gliding became flight.8217;8217;

Sister Gracelin used to be a teacher at the Liseux Primary School in Cheeranchira, with an interest in the outdoors that was not convent-like at all. Nowadays she spends most of her time in a chapel nearby. Cheeranchira is in Changanaserry in south central Kerala. There is nothing remarkable about the place except that it was here that Anju Bobby George was born, spent her early years 8212; and began to dream.

At a wayside tea-shop, wide-eyed at Olympia
MANY years ago the nun and young Anju used to stop by at the Cheeranchira chapel coming back from the school8217;s playground. On the way they would halt at a wayside teashop and they would drink tea in fluted plastic cups, milky the way the girl liked it, and after the tea they would sit there awhile for the breeze to dry their sweaty, aching limbs.

Those were days, the nun remembers, when good Syrian Christian folk would gently admonish their girl children if they showed too much interest in sports and games. It meant too much pale flesh exposed for mummy8217;s taste.

8216;8216;Horses sweat, men perspire, and ladies 8230; and what do ladies do?8217;8217; The nun can8217;t recollect the rest of what used to be a popular refrain then. 8216;8216;When ladies sweated it was supposed to be delicate, even fragrant, nothing like the acrid wet which collected in the pleats of our skin,8217;8217; she laughingly remarks.

The chapel at Cheeranchira has been freshly painted over and the door replaced by a fretwork arch. On a grandfather clock in an anteroom the minute hand slowly sweeps to the upright.

Sister Gracelin is a bit hard of hearing but her handshake is firm, her fingers cool and separate like so many little cold compresses. In her other hand she is holding a few wet narcissi and the scant blossoms from some nameless shrub. They smell strongly of disinfectant.

Examined in a certain light, childhood can explain much of what subsequently transpires. The future Olympic contender8217;s confessor, when she looked into the child8217;s eyes and tried to see shame or sense, would have seen much else. The little body jumped a distance, the ambition leaped much, much farther.

Right up there, with the uber ladies who leap
ALMOST a year ago, on August 30, 2003, Anju Bobby George won the bronze medal at the World Athletics Championship in Paris. In blustery weather, before 60,000 spectators at the Stade de France, she kissed her medal and dedicated it to India8217;s one billion people. In many ways it was more than a moment of private elation: Anju8217;s achievement signalled an end to Indian sport8217;s sob story routine.

In the allotted six jumps that day, Anju, in her fourth attempt, cleared 6.90 m, which should have won her the gold. It was not wind-aided either, but one referee raised a white flag and another a red one.

In the end the jump was declared a foul. Anju had overstepped the take-off board by four mm. She could have legitimately gone in for an appeal but it was her first appearance at this level of competition and neither she nor her husband and coach Bobby George were sure of the procedure.

They let it pass but vowed that next time around, especially at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Anju would compensate with a medal of brighter hue.

Since Paris, Anju has been doing the European and North American circuit, competing against the world8217;s best 8212; and the results speak for themselves. Her world ranking has moved up from sixth in 2003 to fourth now.

This past week, at the DN Galan Super Grand Prix in Stockholm, Anju finished fifth. Bobby George is unruffled, saying his wife8217;s relatively disappointing performance could actually be a blessing in disguise.

8216;8216;Anju cannot afford to peak too early. Let her reserve her best for Athens,8217;8217; he explains.

In a little Kerala town, pa-in-law prays. And prays
LIKE in Cheeranchira, in Kannur too 8212; Kannur is Bobby George8217;s hometown 8212; family and friends have begun a long vigil, a sort of collective and remote psyching process that they believe should enable Anju to strike gold at Athens.

Her father-in-law, George Joseph, 72, who lives in Peravoor, once dreamt of a great volleyball team which included his seven sons. But with the legendary Jimmy George dying prematurely in a car crash 8212; in Italy, they have named an indoor stadium after him 8212; that dream evaporated. It has now been replaced with fervent prayers for Anju.

8216;8216;She can do it get the gold medal,8217;8217; George Joseph says, 8216;8216;Mike Powell, the world record holder and her other coach, keeps saying, 8216;She is intrinsically a seven metre jumper8217; and the Olympic gold this time will be in that range. All the hard work of the past few years ought to pay.8217;8217;

Joseph recalls the excitement when Bobby called him long distance from Paris to announce Anju8217;s medal at the world athletics meet. Bobby8217;s voice broke but his elation still carried over miles of static and electrical nowhere.

8216;8216;It was, I can vouch, and so will all others who know them, as much a victory for Bobby as it was for Anju. It was he who had made her believe in her own potential, of what she was capable of,8217;8217; Joseph says.

Coach, husband and journey up from hell
AFTER an injury ruled her out of the 2000 Sydney Games, Anju appeared slow and out of sync, at a sort of nadir in her career. But her marriage to Bobby the same year inspired her to think long term.

The move in May 2003 to Fullerton, California, to train under Powell, was a big decision. To have her career professionally managed by a firm as reputed as Hudson Smith International 8212; Anju is the only Indian sportsperson and non-cricketer to be thus managed 8212; introduced her to the twin benefits of entry to top competitions and prize money.

The Paris bronze earned her 20,000. More recently, third place at the Golden Gala meet in Rome was worth 5,000 euros.

There has been considerable monetary reward from both the Tamil Nadu government 8212; Anju is settled in Chennai, where she works as a customs officer 8212; and the government of India. But most of this goes to paying for Anju8217;s and Bobby8217;s travel bills.

With the countdown to Athens having begun, Bobby reveals, Anju8217;s usual five-hour grind at the Powell camp will yield to less intensive but more refined practice.

8216;8216;There will be repetitive 150-m sprints, specific muscle toning workouts, like bouncing a ball with a five kg ball etc. The day will be wound up with a massage and an ice bath,8217;8217; he explains.

Donning the coach8217;s hardhat, Bobby will be training a microscopic gaze at Anju8217;s progress. 8216;8216;I will concentrate on finetuning her technique,8217;8217; he says, 8216;8216;She has recently been fouling a lot on her jumps, something that has never happened before. We need to look into that. Also, her landing ought to improve a bit which could give her the extra few inches that will be so crucial in the final.8217;8217;

In sport8217;s battleground, a bit of war-paint helps
IN Athens, it is anticipated Anju will meet the usual bunch of contenders for the top slots: Eunice Barber of France, Elva Goulbourne of Jamaica, Grace Upshaw of the US, Russia8217;s Tatyana Kotova and, of course, the mellowed Marion Jones. This familiarity should help her handle the pressure better.

And then there is, as always, the figurine of Mother Mary she carries with her on to the field. That and the fluorescent tracksuit she will continue wearing for luck 8212; though she hopes this time around the garish green won8217;t let the officials mistake her for someone else. The way it happened in St Denis for the world meet. Over the loudspeaker they announced, 8216;8216;Anju George from Indonesia 8230;8217;8217;

Finally, whatever the result, there will be the simple pleasure of watching her perform, her old friend Suma Varughese says. 8216;8216;The media shouldn8217;t pile up pressure on her. Allow her to be herself,8217;8217; she adds.

Varughese studied with Anju at the Vimala College in Trichur. She hasn8217;t met Anju after college but has been following her rise from a distance. From her drawing room mantlepiece she takes down a laminated photo of Anju holding aloft a medal, grainy and grinning. Suma pertinently remarks that seldom are we allowed to garland our sporting heroes, and even less our heroines, with looks to match their exceptional talent.

Anju, she remembers, was not only a good looking girl but, more significantly, not the type to hide it under a bushel. She always wanted the world to see and to know.

8216;8216;I can still picture her with the phone held in a shrug, angrily inspecting her nail polish, first on one hand then the other, even as her voice rose and fell 8212; the peaks of her furious whispers, the hush of her concern,8217;8217; Varughese says.

Come D-Day in Athens the world can confidently expect Anju to walk down the tracks with mascara and lip-gloss, primed and ready. To win. To fulfil a nun8217;s dream. To bring India its gold.

In Paris, Anju and Bobby take a break from their passion
Norris Pritam

QUITE suddenly, a low-key apartment in Paris has become centre of the universe for the French capital8217;s Indian community. Indeed, the alternating strains of Malayalam films numbers and Jagjit Singh8217;s ghazals emanating from the apartment make it seem all the more familiar.

But the apartment is also the setting for a dream most unfamiliar to Indians 8212; the quest for an Olympic gold. Long jumper Anju George and her husband Bobby made it their abode this week, en route to Operation Athens.

With the Games round the corner, the sound of music has replaced the jingling of barbells. For a change, Anju8217;s home does not smell of Tiger balm. Rather, it indicates a calm before the storm 8216;8216;For the past four days, no training, only rest,8217;8217; Anju says, laughing with the music behind her.

So what8217;s Paris like? 8216;8216;Well, there8217;re plenty of Tamils here,8217;8217; says India8217;s Olympian wonder woman. It8217;s a mundane observation but one an international athlete, she of the packed schedule, rarely has time to make. Maybe that8217;s why this break was needed 8212; if only to open a little window to life beyond 21 strides for the 27-year-old Chennai customs officer.

For someone detached from her roots for a whole year, travelling a million miles from home with nothing more than talent, self-belief and an ambition most under-achieving Indians would dismiss as crazy, the sight of Tamils in Paris tugs at the heartstrings. A girl does miss home. Even if she8217;s a superstar.

8216;8216;Yes, I8217;ve been missing my family back in Kerala,8217;8217; admits Anju. And when they talk on the phone, it8217;s always about family, 8216;8216;never the long jump8217;8217;. Anju8217;s allergy to dust is worrying her parents. 8216;8216;I was suffering from it in Bangalore but things are better here,8217;8217; she says. But Athens is heat and smog zone: 8216;8216;I will use a mask there.8217;8217;

Does she miss home food? 8216;8216;I think I8217;ve forgotten its taste! In the past fortnight or so, I8217;ve had Italian, Spanish, Swedish and French cuisine. Now that we8217;ve touched base in Paris, we8217;re cooking at home.8217;8217;

Being a globetrotter is difficult. It may also be a journey of discovery: 8216;8216;Some Swedish rice dishes are just like our own food, with hot spices. It was like having biryani and curry. Pasta and pizzas in Rome were also good.8217;8217;

The Georges don8217;t share a passion for just athletic excellence. They take turns at cooking too. 8216;8216;It depends who8217;s free. Now that I8217;ve declared complete rest for four days, it8217;s my turn,8217;8217; says Anju.

The only quarrels are on the music front: 8216;8216;He wants to listen to ghazals, I want Malayalam songs. At the same time 8230; You can guess the rest.8217;8217;

THE break in Paris is also a time for contemplation. The Georges are assessing their rivals. 8216;8216;We have been watching and analysing all major long jumpers,8217;8217; Anju says. Russia8217;s Tatyana Lebedeva is the one to watch out for. 8216;8216;Mentally,8217;8217; explains Anju, 8216;8216;she is very strong.8217;8217;

Devout Catholic that she is, Anju hasn8217;t forgotten that special message to the heavens. 8216;8216;I took Holy Communion in the Vatican and here, in Paris, too we go to church,8217;8217; she says, 8216;8216;I don8217;t understand a word of French but the service is similar to what we have in Indian churches.8217;8217;

Sharing her prayers in Athens will be a bunch of bubbling, excited and awfully proud relatives: 8216;8216;Bobby8217;s brothers are coming from Dubai and Bangalore.8217;8217; But her own siblings won8217;t be there. 8216;8216;My younger brother was very keen,8217;8217; she sighs, 8216;8216;but he has to sit a job exam.8217;8217;

The Georges leave for Athens today, Sunday, August 1. Other than one billion prayers, is there anything she needs from home?

8216;8216;Please get me some Malayalam magazines, because I will have lots of free time,8217;8217; she says. The Games begin on August 13 8212; but Anju gets down to business only on August 25, with the qualifying rounds.

It8217;s a deal, Anju: Give us the gold, India will buy you a lifetime subscription to every single Malayalam magazine in the market 8230; Just get that darned medal.