Manjit ends 36year dryrun in 800m
First gold since Borromeo in 1982, Punjab runner and Jinson give India top two positions
JAKARTA: Manjit Singh came up with the most inspiring performance of his more than decadelong career to not just win a gold medal in the gruelling 800m race at the Asian Games but also push his more illustrious teammate Jinson Johnson to second spot at the GBK Complex here on Tuesday.
It was a win-win situation for India as Manjit and Johnson completed a one-two finish to become the seventh Indian pair to win a gold and a silver in the track events at the Asian Games. Ranjit Singh and Kulwant Singh were the first to achieve the feat (800m) at the inaugural Asian Games held in New Delhi in 1951
Manjit and Jinson’s determined effort will be etched in the history of Indian athletics. Manjit exploded in the last 50 meters crossing three runners — Jinson, Qatar’s Abdalla Abubaker and Amit Moradi of Iran — on way to the title.
Last time India won a gold medal in 800m was in 1982 when Charles Borromeo won the race.
With a personal best of 1:46.15 sec, the 29-year-old Manjit, son of a farmer from Jind district in Haryana, ensured that he finally made his presence felt at the international level.
Jinson clocked 1:46.35 sec and was nowhere close to his personal best of 1:45.65 sec, which the Kerala athlete had set at the National Inter-state Championships in Guwahati eclipsing the longest-standing record of the legendary Sriram Singh, who had clocked 1:45.77 sec at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
The three-month high-altitude camp in Bhutan seems to have worked wonders for India’s long and middle-distance run- ners as, only on Monday 300m steeplechase runner Sudha Singh credited her silver to the Thimpu training.
“Yes, that (stint) played a crucial role in my win today,” said Manjit, whose personal best before Tuesday’s race was 1:46.24, set during the Guwahati Inter-state in June this year.
For Manjit, who has remained in the shadows of Jinson, this was the occasion to flaunt his achievement.
Manjit, however, remained humble as ever. “I was hopeful of a gold as I had been clocking good timings.”
MANJIT’S MAIDEN INTERNATIONAL GLORY
This is Manjit’s maiden international medal and his previous best showing had come at the 2013 Asian Championships in Pune, where he had finished fourth. Still unemployed, Manjit hoped the win will get him a job.
His inspiration on Tuesday was statemate Neeraj Chopra’s javelin gold last night. Unlike others who look at motivational videos and try to emulate their icons, Manjit derives motivation from watching videos of him losing and then “ironing out the problems”.
Hopefully, he had watched enough of those clips to finally overcome a lean period that seemed to be lasting endlessly.