Praveen overcomes odds to land triple jump bronze medal
Praveen Chitravel, a daily wage farm labourer’s son, clinched bronze in the men’s triple jump to give India its second athletics medal in the Youth Olympics.
The 17-year-old Praveen, who hails from a village in Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu, cleared a distance of 15.68m to finish fifth in the Stage 2 competition but his good showing in Stage 1, where he was third with a jump of 15.84m, took him to the podium with a combined effort of 31.52m. In the new format, there are no finals in track & field and each event is held twice, with results from both rounds added.
Praveen, a gold medallist in the inaugural Khelo India School Games this year, belongs to an extremely poor family. Praveen luckily met a mentor in Indira Suresh, an athletics coach at the Centre of Excellence for Boys in Chennai who is an employee of the Sports Development Authority of India, and she groomed him. He now trains under Indira at Nagercoil.
“When Praveen was in Class VII at the CoE in Chennai, I spotted him and took him under me. When I was shifted to a college in Nagercoil, he also came to me and said he will train only under me. So, I got him admitted to my college,” Indira said.
“He gets some stipends and with some financial support from others, I am supporting him in his training, participation in competitions etc. His father’s meagre income cannot support the cost of his training. His family has no money,” the coach said.