Equalling Dutee Chand’s record wasn’t the target, breaking it was: Abinaya Rajarajan after matching national U-18 100m mark

Even though Abinaya was disappointed at not breaking Dutee’s record, the timings are very encouraging for a youngster who started running just to “skip maths classes.”

“I was in Class 6, and there was a zonal meet coming up. I asked my teacher which was the shortest race, and was told it’s the 100m. So that’s how I got into sprints. The prospect of missing maths classes was the only reason I signed up for the event,” she recalls.

The results at the Zonals surprised not only her teachers but Abinaya herself. Competing in her school uniform, she beat trained runners with ease. The trend continued thereafter, and it didn’t take long for Abinaya to get bitten by the sprinting bug. “When I started beating athletes without training, I realised I was naturally gifted. That’s when I thought I should take up sprinting more seriously,” she said.

NATIONAL JUNIOR ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024

Tamil Nadu's Abhinaya Rajarajan broke the nine-year-old meet record of 11.89 seconds, previously held by Rashmi Sheregar, in the women's U-18 100m heats (Heat 1) with a timing of 11.62 seconds.

She also equaled the national record… pic.twitter.com/GPL3T5eBI5

— nnis Sports (@nnis_sports) December 7, 2024

Abinaya knew what the next logical step would be: professional training. She joined a sports club in her village, Kalluthu, in the Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu when she was in the 9th standard. However, lack of facilities soon began to hamper her progress. “We didn’t have a synthetic track, and the nearest stadium was in Tirunelveli, about 40 km away. Travelling every day wasn’t a feasible option,” she said.

That’s when Abinaya’s family decided to take a leap of faith. They left their village home and moved to Tirunelveli to ensure she got better training facilities. “I always wanted my daughter to become an athlete. She would reach the semis of all competitions and then exit. We knew she needed to train regularly on synthetic tracks to graduate to the next level,” said her father Rajarajan, who runs a stone quarry business.

Initially, the move didn’t yield results. The desired improvements weren’t coming. But Abinaya didn’t lose hope, and it took almost two years to find her footing. After finishing school, she accepted the Sports Authority of India’s offer to train at their centre in Trivandrum. She hasn’t looked back since. Last year, she was part of the bronze medal-winning 4x100m relay team at the U20 Asian Championships.

The Bhubaneswar junior nationals were Abinaya’s last shot at Dutee Chand’s youth record, as she will have to compete in the U20 category from next season. “I was really disappointed that I missed the mark. Equalling the record is fine, but I would have been happier breaking it. I was targeting 11.52 seconds in the final but couldn’t pull it off,” she said in a disappointed tone.

Her father, however, shows no disappointment with her performance.

“I have read so much about Dutee. It’s a huge achievement that she has equalled Dutee’s record. I didn’t expect her to match such a great runner’s mark in such a short time,” he said proudly.