OP Jaisha’s 42 km hurdles

Jaisha went as a spectator but was dragged into participating in an 800m race by a local coach, who was struggling to form a team because of last-minute drop outs. Wearing a wavy skirt, front-button loose top, the bare-footed village girl, who had never participated in a competitive race before, was suddenly part of a field that included the national school games champion. The outcome of the race left everyone stunned. Jaisha had won with a 100-metre lead over the second-placed runner.

Jaisha with her husband and coach Gurmeet Singh.

That evening, 15 years ago, as she proudly ran home with the certificate, the household — a mother battling depression, a bed-ridden father and three older sisters —shed tears of joy. From that moment on, Orchatteri Puthiya Veetil Jaisha knew that her running could lift the mood of her family. Years later, within days of her breaking the national marathon record, she tells you that her athletic feats helped her family escape acute poverty.

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When Jaisha was five, her father, a daily wage labourer, met with a bus accident that injured his spine and confined him to bed. Her mother, unable to bear the pain of seeing her husband struggle to even move around in bed, slowly slipped into depression. The only source of income for the family was the three cows they owned. That too dried up, as a month after her father’s accident, the cattle died mysteriously.

“There were days when we had nothing to eat at home. I mean nothing. As a teenager there were days when I ate mud because I could not starve anymore. If I could drink kanjivellam (rice water) on a particular day, I would consider myself lucky. You can’t believe how poor we were,” Jaisha recalls.

Despite the hardships, Jaisha’s mother didn’t allow her daughter to do menial jobs. “My mother told me that we might have to miss a meal and starve, but we would not do things that we were not comfortable doing. She had four daughters and it would have been an easy option for her to ask us to work as maids in houses and earn money. But instead she decided to take a loan,” she says. So the mother mortgaged a small piece of land on which their thatch house stood and took a loan from the village bank. The money was used to buy cows.

Jaisha with her Belarusian coach Nikolai Snesarev.

Jaisha, the youngest of the siblings, was given the responsibility of ensuring that the family did not go hungry. “I would get up at 5 am, milk the cows, and then walk one and a half kilometres to the local milk society to sell the milk and walk back home. After that I would walk another two kilometres to school. During the lunch break I would run home to eat and if I was lucky there would be food. Then head back to school for the rest of the day’s classes. In the evening I would once again make the trip to the milk society.”

This daily routine was a blessing in disguise for the wiry girl who would go on to become a two-time Asian Games medallist in the middle distance events and break a two-decade old women’s marathon record not once but twice in a span of eight months. Thrissilery, Jaisha’s native place, is at an altitude of nearly 2,500 feet. Without realising it, Jaisha was subjecting herself to high altitude training when she ran or walked an average of 10 kilometres a day through hilly terrain and valleys to get to school and the milk society office.

Training at venues where air is thinner, forces the body to produce an increased number of red blood cells which boosts endurance. This tried and tested method is adopted by athletes the world over. Jaisha, herself, as her career progressed has trained at Dharamshala, Eldoret – the high altitude venue, a breeding ground for Kenya’s runners – and more recently in Coonoor and Ooty under Belarus-born coach Nikolai Snesarev.

Jaisha has been able to construct a new house at Thrissilery, in Kerala’s Wayanad district,

Jaisha’s journey from Thrissilery to the showcase venues of athletics around the world would not have been possible if not for the winner’s certificate handed over by the panchayat, the local club coach’s recommendation and the merit she earned by beating a school games champion at the cultural festival.

“The coach Girish spoke highly of my potential as an athlete to the management of Assumption College in Changanacherry. The institution is a breeding ground of athletes in the state. I was lucky that the coach’s word and the winner’s certificate from the Kerala Utsavam got me admission. My family could not afford to send me to college and I moved from Thrissilery to Changanacherry with just a shirt on my back and nothing else,” Jaisha says.

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The 17-year-old caught the eye of coach Unnikrishnan Menon and the head of the physical education department Ninamma Thomas. “Coach Menon sir and Ninamma madam treated me like their own daughter. I was provided moral support as well as the necessary kit and shoes for training. It was the first time in my life I received any sort of training and I was so grateful. I would have probably spent the rest of my life in my village selling milk. Our family would survive for a few days on the money two-three litres of milk fetched us in the market. When you have nothing to fall back on you must grab the opportunity that comes your way and put your heart and soul into athletics. I did just that at Assumption College.”

At the inter-university meet in 2005, under the scorching sun in Guntur, the unheralded Jaisha pulled off the unprecedented feat of winning a hat-trick of gold medals; in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000.

Soon she was fast-tracked to the national camp where she first came under the tutelage of Snesarev, a hard-taskmaster who is known to infuriate trainees because of his relentless work-outs and dictatorial methods but retains their trust because of the results he produces.

With Snesarev pushing her, Jaisha enjoyed her breakthrough year at the continental level when she won bronze in the 1,500 metres at the Doha Asian Games. The 21-year-old looked poised to become a star but instead of progressing steadily her career hit a wall.

“Actually, after winning a medal at the Doha Asian Games, I turned my attention to my family commitments. My elder sisters were of marriageable age, there were loans to be paid off, my father remained bed-ridden. I used the prize money I won from winning bronze at the Asiad to pay for the wedding of my sisters. I also helped in paying off part of the loan by selling the house I had bought. There were also medical bills to be paid. I admit I wasn’t as focussed as I should have been on athletics. But I also had an injury and respiratory problems too.”

At the national level Jaisha was winning medals but when she faced tougher completion she failed to make the podium. At the Commonwealth Games hosted in New Delhi, she finished a lowly ninth in the heats (1,500m) and failed to make the final.

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A bronze in the 1,500 metres at the Asian Athletics Championships in Kobe in 2011 was a ray of hope signalling a possible return to form but in the next edition of the games, held in Pune, Jaisha left fans and officials disappointed by not winning a medal. An eighth-place finish in the 5,000 metres and fifth in the 1,500 brought the curtains down on her career.

Or so it seemed.

Jaisha was excluded from the national camp and at 30 was deemed to be too old to be considered an athlete with a ‘bright future’. A year earlier, Jaisha was among the athletes who had trained under Italian coach Claudio Berardelli in Eldoret. But misfortune struck as a left-ankle injury resulted in a stress fracture. Her London Olympics dream ended.

During this difficult period Jaisha found support in her husband Gurmeet Singh, who is also a coach. The two had met in Patiala in 2010 when Gurmeet, a former sprinter, was doing his coach’s certification course, and Jaisha was training at the National Institute of Sports campus.

The Punjabi and Malayalee decided to get married. Jaisha found a husband who wouldn’t ask her to stop being an athlete, become a housewife and rear children.

Gurmeet saw in Jaisha an athlete with a fierce determination, the kind he had not come across during his years as coach at the Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana. It was a love marriage as much as it was a marriage of compatibility. “There were times when I wanted to quit sport. I had a job with the Eastern Railways but injury, dip in form had left me disheartened. Moreover, I was being termed as ‘too old’ to run for the country. I was lucky that I found Gurmeet. He once again instilled belief in me.”

After Jaisha was excluded from the national camp after the mediocre showing at the Asian championships in Pune, Gurmeet decided to devote his complete attention to his wife. “I quit my Khalsa College job and travelled with Jaisha to the Sports Authority of India’s high altitude training centre in Dharamshala. I stayed outside the SAI centre and paid from my pocket for lodging. We were determined to prove that Jaisha could once again win a medal at the Asian Games. We spent nine months in Dharamshala and then slowly but surely Jaisha started regaining her form and strength,” Gurmeet says.

When coach Snesarev returned in 2014, Jaisha was recalled to train under the him. Jaisha, older – at 32– but more determined than ever before, proved her mettle by winning the bronze in the 1,500 metres at the Incheon Asiad with a timing of 4 minutes and 13.46 seconds. Coach Snesarev challenged his ward again and asked her to shift to the marathon in November last year. The result was remarkable.

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In January, at the Mumbai Marathon, Jaisha broke the 19-year-old women’s marathon national record. At the World Championships in Beijing last month, Jaisha shattered the mark again to finish 18th and qualify for the Rio Olympic Games.

Vally Satyabhama’s nearly two-decade old mark stood at 2 hours 38.10. Jaisha lowered it to 2:37.29 in Mumbai and to 2:34.43 in Beijing. “I am happy that I am still breaking national records that too in a 42 kilometre event I started training for less than a year ago. I am now extremely confident while running the shorter events – the 5,000 and 10,000. I have Dr Nikolai Snesarev to thank for helping me break the marathon national record twice. I have received more adulation by breaking the marathon records than winning medals at the Asian Games.”

The Rio Games could be Jaisha’s last competitive event. “Like other athletes I don’t want to boast about the possibility of winning a medal. It will take us another decade at least for an Indian athlete to finish on the podium at an Olympic Games. But realistically, I believe I can finish in the top-8.”

The prize money received for medals won at the Incheon Asiad and the National Games, held earlier this year, has helped Jaisha’s family pay back the money borrowed over the years. The grameen bank also waived off a part of the loan, in consideration for the fame Jaisha has brought to Thrissilery village.

“The bank has returned the land documents. We are now building a new house. Athletics has been a way out of poverty. Today, my family has three square meals. Everyday… 365 days of the year.”

Time Taken

3.27 – Time in minutes and seconds Jaisha has taken off the national marathon record since January. She lowered the mark from 2 hours and 38.10 (V Satyabhama) to 2:37.29 (Mumbai Marathon) and 2:34.43 Beijing World Championships.

8Number of international medals, including two Asiad bronze, Jaisha has won. She came third at Doha (2006) in the 5,000 metres and won bronze at Incheon (2014) in the 1,500. She has also won a bronze as part of the 4×400 replay team — at the 2011 Asian Athletics Championships in Kobe.

‘Realistic chance of finishing in Top-8 in 5000 metres’

OP Jaisha broke the 19-year-old women’s marathon national record in January this year and within eight months went faster again – the second occasion at the Beijing World Championships, where she also qualified for the Rio Olympics. But Jaisha is unlikely to run the marathon at the Olympics.

The 32-year-old athlete has decided to focus on the 5,000 and 10,000 metres – events in which she is yet to qualify for the Rio Games.

What triggered a change of heart was the realisation of how down the field she was when it came to the marathon. While finishing in the top-20 (she was placed 18th) at the World Championships, in August, indicated potential, Jaisha realised she would have to complete the marathon 14 minutes faster if she harboured any hopes of finishing in the top-10 at the Olympics.

“The Rio Olympics will be my last competition and I want to finish in the top-8. After the Worlds I realised that I was way off the mark when it came to the timings produced by Ethiopians and the Kenyans. Now, my primary focus will be the 5,000  but I will also attempt the 10,000 metres,” Jaisha says.

The qualifying standard for the 5000 is 15 minutes and 20 seconds but Jaisha is confident of making the cut. “When I finished fourth at the Asian Games I clocked 15:18.30. So I believe that I can qualify for the Rio Games.”