Indian duo of Jaisha and Lalita Babbar qualify for Beijing World Championships in marathon but coach says they will not run in the event; instead participate in their pet events
Debutants seemed to be having a field day at the Mumbai Marathon on Sunday. After rookie Tesfaye Abera of Ethiopia won the elite men's event, first-timer OP Jaisha emerged the fastest Indian in the women's marathon, clocking 2 hours, 37 minutes and 29 seconds.
What's special about the Asian Games medallist's feat is that she broke the 19-year-old national mark of 2:39:10s set by Vally Satyabhama on December 21, 1995. The win also meant that Jaisha qualified for the IAAF World Championships in Beijing later this year. She was followed by Lalita Babbar (2:38:21, 9th overall) and Sudha Singh (2:42:12, 11th), who also qualified for the Beijing World Championships by finishing under the 2:44 qualifying mark set by Athletics Federation of India.
The only problem that Jaisha now faces is to decide on which race she should compete in Beijing, for she has already qualified for the 5,000m event. "I don't know. My coach (Dr Nikolai Snesarev) will decide on it," she said.
Babbar too had already qualified for the World Championships in the 5,000m event and her pet event — the 3,000m steeplechase, and she too relies on her coach's judgement.
Snesarev said that Jaisha will run in the 5,000m and 10,000m at Beijing while Babbar would take part in the 5,000m and 3,000m steeplechase.
Among the Indian male runners, Karan Singh of Army Sports Institute, Pune, clocked 2:21:35 to finish 11th overall, while his teammate Arjun Pradhan – who was the leading Indian runner till the last few kilometres – clocked 2:22:22 to finish 12th. Kumaon Regiment runner Bahadur Singh Dhoni was the third fasted Indian at 2:22:41 that fetched him the 13th spot overall. Sadly, none of men could attain the AFI-set qualifying standard of 2:18 for the Beijing Worlds.
So how did Jaisha manage to win the marathon and better the national record? Her Belarussian coach Snesarev pointed out that it was her own hard work. He added that should could be much better if she gets more help from the sports ministry.
"The ministry should provide better facilities to these top Indian women runners in the run-up to the Rio Olympic Games. The Sports Authority of India and the Athletics Federation of India have created opportunities for various athletes to come up but the topmost ones deserve better diet and accommodation that was not happening regarding Jaisha or Lalita."
He said he had pointed this out the to ministry but nothing substantial has come of it. "I raised this point in October (soon after returning to India to take up his job) but did not receive any reply. Only recently, I got a letter saying this was not possible. We need quality and not quantity to excel at the highest levels. We did not have enough time to prepare before the Asian Games, otherwise we would have returned with 7-8 medals. But we have sufficient time now for the 2016 Olympic Games," he said.
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