Asha Ilango lost a triple jump bronze at the Asian Games to China’s Li Yi on countback. It broke her heart but she has quickly left the disappointment behind, winning the National Open Athletics Championships gold medal here with a meet record of 13.89m.
Though I lost the medal and it was tough, they are not bothering me now. “It was surprising that I won a medal on debut. “My parents, everyone in the family and the elders, would always talk about marriage. Whenever I was injured or not performing well, the topic would be that I should get married. I was fed up. “I came back and qualified for the Asian Games, and to come so close to a medal and not have it was very tough. I wanted to try out the triple jump and it was very exciting. I enjoyed myself. “She has been doing triple jump in training, so we thought, let’s try it out in competition. She is light and her physique will suit triple jump. We want to try it at the National Games as well next year and see how she progresses.
They are encouraging me to continue,” Asha,27, told HT.
I asked them to give me six months and said I would return with a medal from the Asian Games. I could not sleep for days,” said the Madurai girl. Going forward, long jump will continue to be my priority, but I will also keep doing triple jump,” she said. Having two events will keep her interested as well,” he said.
“We are going into the off-season now, where we will work on their speed and explosive strength and come back with better performances next season,” said Dev and Kuldeep’s coach, Ghanshyam Yadav.
“The target is to qualify for the LA Olympics, and for that we have to keep pushing the bar,” he said.
