While all eyes on day one of the inaugural National Indoor Athletics Championships were on National Record holder in triple jump Praveen Chithravel, it was Sarun Payasingh and Baranica Elangovan who stole the limelight.
Sarun won the first big final of the day, the 25-year-old Oriya, Sarun who usurped the gold medal in the men’s long jump with a leap of 7.80metres, which is also his personal best on Tuesday.
However, it was Baranica, who was the darling of the sparse crowd as she eclipsed the National Record of 4.21 set by Rosy Meena Paulraj by one centimetre.
Immediately after registering the National mark, she gave her long-time coach Milbur Rusell a bear hug. This achievement took three years in the making. She had been struggling after she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left leg. Despite the reconstruction surgery, she was never free of the pain. Three years back, the pair got into the Reliance High Performance centre and have been on the med ever since.
“It was an emotional day for both of us. The hug explains what all we have been through together,” Baranica told the media after the final. Kerala team mates, Blessy Kunjumon and Mariya Jaison finished second and third with best clearance of 3.95m and 3.80m respectively.
Baranica has been under Milbur’s tutelage since 2016, when she moved to Chennai. “I have been close to the mark recently. My earliest personal best was 4.15m but today the indoor set up helped me and to register a mark here in Kalinga, which is my second home, was extraordinary,” she said.
Earlier, Sarun, who hails from Paikapada village in Kalahandi district, eclipsed a known Indian international Chithravel on his home turf.
After failing to record a jump in his first attempt, the 25-year-old went into the outright lead in his second attempt with a jump of 7.80m much to the delight of the home fans. Sarun, who will also participate in the 60m men’s sprint, went past Chithravel’s mark of 7.78m, which was also his second attempt. Chithravel then had a below par attempt of 7.55m in this third and final attempt and that ensured that Sarun would be crowned as the first ever National Indoor long jump champion.
“I do whatever my coach (Sandeep Sen) tells me to do. I am the body and he is the brain in this partnership,” he said. When asked whether he was under pressure to perform against Chithravel, he said it was not even discussed.
“I do not think about who I am competing against, my only motivation is to go past my personal best. My earlier personal best was 7.78m after today my next and immediate target is to cross the 8 metre mark,” he added.
Sen had to change his technique to get the results as last year it was sort of stalling. “I felt he was sort of leaping far too much after the jump. Once you do that you cannot extend your landing, you can only land,” Sen explained. “I had to switch him to the cycling technique, also called hitch-kick technique where the jumper uses the running motion in the air that helps forward motion and stabilises him. He picked up real quick and now we are starting to see some good results,” Sen added.
Results:
Men: (800m) Md Afsal (Air Force) 1:47.86s, Kalyan JR (Karnataka) 1:53.98s, S Karmakar (West Bengal) 1:56.98s; (3,000m): S Parashuram (Reliance) 8:09.88s , Vinod Singh (MP) 8:16.93s, Rahul Verma (Chhattisgarh) 8:18.21s; (60m hurdles: Krishik M (Karnataka) 7.71s, Rathish P (Reliance) 7.84s, M Lazan (JSW) 8.00s; (long jump: Sarun Payasingh (Odisha) 7.80m, P Chithravel (JSW) 7.78m, David P (Railway) 7.69m; (shot put) R Kumar (BSF) 17.17m, A Ghildiyal (Uttarakhand) 16,92m, Balaji (TN) 16.74m.
Women: (3,000m) Priyanka C (Karnataka) 9:42.05s , Kajal Rangnath (Guj) 9:44.01s, Sushmita Tigga (Odisha) 10:22.30s; (shot put) Rekha (NCOE Patiala) 15.63m, Mayuri Arade (Karnataka) 9.15m; (long jump) Anamika KA (JSW) 6.05m, Manisha Merel (Odisha) 6.04m, Sherin A (JSW) 5.92m.