Journalism of Courage
When he started changing on the track ahead of his 110m hurdles at the Federation Cup, Siddhanth Thingalaya noticed there was something missing in his kitbag. While his silver and gold spikes were there, his fluorescent blue wraparound glasses were not.
Since the last four years, Thingalaya has always raced with the wraparound goggles. They aren’t simply a style statement (although Thingalaya does seem to prefer neon shades). While he wears corrective contact lenses, Thingalaya says the race itself causes his vision to blur. Charging down the track, the last thing he needs is sweat and dust to get into his eyes, as they had once, as the ten 3.5 foot obstacles appear to rush at him.
Thingalaya had infact left his eyewear in another bag which was being carried away by a colleague. With no time to get it back, the 23-year-old simply got on with the job at hand. Without clipping a hurdle he crossed the line in 13.65 seconds — matching his own national record. The timing makes Thingalaya the fourth fastest in the event at the Asian level this year.
Coach Darrell Smith at UCLA would have been proud. Thingalaya had gone to Smith at the start of this year simply to try something different. Thingalaya had set the national record at 13.65s in 2012, but had seemingly stagnated after a hamstring injury that same year.
Smith, who has coached several Olympic medallists of his own — including current world silver medallist Ryan Wilson, had gifted Thingalaya the gold and silver boots. He felt he had uncovered a flaw in Thingalaya’s technique. Till the first five hurdles, Thingalaya’s timing (6.22 seconds) is comparable to the best in the world. “But after that I have a problem of overthinking my approach to the hurdles. When you see the hurdles coming so quickly at you, you start thinking about how you are going to clear them,” Thingalaya says.
“Darell told me not to think about my action on the track. The moment I go through in my head that I need my body in a certain position, it hurts my speed. He told me that with my height (6’3″), I have the ability to simply sprint and not worry about hitting a hurdle. His suggestion was simply to forget that the hurdles were there and attack the track. He told me don’t think, just sprint,” he says.
Ajit Kulkarni, who first trained Thingalaya, and continues to train him after his US stint, says it was simply lack of competition practice that did him in. ” Thingalaya only had one competition this year before the CWG (at Lucknow). He doesn’t have anyone who can challenge him in India and that makes it hard for him to improve. The more races you run, the more comfortable you get. At the Federation Cup, he decided to run the qualifying run as a final rather than taking it easy,” says Kulkarni.
Poonia wins discus gold
With Seema Punia (nee Antil) not taking part in the women’s discus throw, Krishna Poonia won the event with a throw of 56.84m on her last attempt. Poonia, however, was taking part with a strapping on her left knee due to a meniscus tear and stretched the limb between throws. Poonia, who won bronze at the last Asian Games, beat youngster and current world junior bronze medallist Navjeet Dhillon, who could only manage a best of 53.26.
CWG bronze medallist Arpinder Singh, meanwhile won the triple jump gold with an effort of 16.70m. He beat Renjith Maheshwary, who managed a best of 16.43m.
