She didn’t need to show her midriff, she simply showed her class. While her competitors were dressed as if for a beauty contest, Anju Bobby George ended the day dressed in gold and walked off with coach-cum-husband Bobby George, the happiest couple on earth. It wasn’t an easy long jump field, not even for someone who won bronze at the Commonwealth Games. For all their finery, the athletes from Japan and China were still top-level; yet, with her 6.53 metre jump, Anju blew them away and became the first Indian woman to win a field event at the Asiad. At the victory ceremony, Anju looked at the Indian tri-colour being raised to the strains of Jana Gana Mana and went all emotional. ‘‘I was about to cry,’’ she said, fondling the shiny medal hanging around her neck. And yet, typically, she thought she could have done better (she has better marks to her name than today’s jump). ‘‘I know I haven’t done as well as I did at the Commonwealth Games. I was not getting enough push for the lift, or I would have done better.’’ That’s because the event was being held on a newly laid synthetic surface. Then, the moment got the better of the modesty and she basked — though briefly — in the significance of what she’d done. ‘‘Gold is any day better than the bronze I won in Manchester. This was only my second international meet, my first Asiad. I need more exposure to perform better.’’ The seeds for 24-year-old Anju’s success were laid more than a decade ago in remote Kuruthode, in Kerala’s Kottayam district, where her choice of school was influenced by the presence of physical education instructor K P Thomas, a paternal uncle of star athlete Shiny Wilson. Her focus sharpened once she joined college in Trichur; triple jump, pentathlon, hurdles. It was former Air Force athlete T Ouseph who put on the track for the long jump. She made a mark at the national level, which caught the eye of fellow athlete Bobby George, brother of volleyball star Jimmy George (who, coincidentally, won an Asiad bronze in Seoul 16 years ago before dying tragically). Bobby started coaching her and, three years later, they got married. But Bobby had to pay a price for Anju’s success; he left serious athletics and turned to full-time coaching. His first challenge was getting Anju international exposure; the Commonwealth Games at Manchester was her first outing abroad, and she won bronze. Today, all the hard work seemed to have paid off. Bobby became the only Indian husband to see his wife jump to an Asian Games gold from the stands, And the smile she gave him after winning must surely have made up for the medals that passed Bobby by. Back home in India, the reactions were ecstatic. ‘‘Indian athletics really needed this gold,’’ remarked former international quartermiler Uday K Prabhu. ‘‘Ever since MD Valsamma won the 400m hurdles gold at the 1982 New Delhi Asiad, we had begun to focus more on track stars. But Anju has shown new possibilities.’’ ‘‘It’s a pioneering achievement for Indian women in field events,’’ said V R Beedu, whose protege Angel Mary Joseph won the long jump silver at the 1978 Bangkok Asian Games. ‘‘Indian women were always thought of as soft, who would struggle when it came to handling pressure. But this girl has rendered all those doubts to the dust bin,’’ the legendary coach remarked in his inimitable style. How close is Anju to the Olympic medal? Prabhu has an answer: ‘‘I’ve been seeing Anju from before she was married; the most significant aspect of her career graph is that it has always been upward. An Olympic medal might be more than just a dream.’’ In Kochi, Olympian T C Yohannan, whose Asian Games long jump record of 8.07 meteres at Teheran still stands, said : ‘‘A creditable feat indeed for Indians. This is the second time ever that India got a gold medal in the long jump at Asiad.’’ (With S Mageshwaran/Aswin Abraham in Bangalore & Chennai)
