The story behind triple jump’s golden day at the CWG

Despite the absence of a coach, they came up with the best results 

For the last few weeks, sitting in his national camp base in Bengaluru, M. Harikrishnan used to wake up at odd hours and watch his athletes train in Chula Vista and Oregon during the recent World Championships in the USA and then in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Surprisingly, despite three Indian triple jumpers qualifying for the Worlds and the Commonwealth Games, no coach was sent to Oregon or Birmingham. “We could not get the visa for the coach,” explained Adille Sumariwalla, the Athletics Federation of India president, from Birmingham.

But Harikrishnan was always willing to help, any time of the day or night.

“I used to sit up after midnight and watch my athletes train in the US, they used to send me videos during training and I used to correct their mistakes. They were in the US for a few days after the Worlds.

“After they reached Birmingham, I could train them online at a more comfortable time,” Harikrishnan, a former international, told The Hindu from Bengaluru on Sunday evening.

Those midnight lessons were very fruitful for Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker, Harikrishnan’s two trainees, made history winning gold and silver in the Commonwealth Games. It was India’s first gold in triple jump at the Games and the first-ever one-two in an athletics event at the CWG.

A few days ago, Eldhose had told this writer that his teammates Aboobacker and Praveen Chithravel would be his biggest challengers.