Old ways not paying off for PT Usha’s ward
NEW DELHI: It’s time for introspection as the country’s leading middle-distance runner, Tintu Luka, failed to move into the semifinal of the women’s 800m event at the World Championships in Beijing on Wednesday.
The Asian champion ran an aggressive race, covering the first lap in 57.06 seconds, but faded away in the last 200m, to eventually finish seventh in 2:0.95 sec. The top three in each heat move into the semifinal round.
Experts said Tintu’s inability to change her running strategy was the reason for her none-too-impressive performance. Former national coach JS Bhatia felt that Tintu, who is ranked among the top-10 in the world in 800m, usually “goes out aggressively in the first 400m and then fades away in the closing stages”.
Tintu comes from the PT Usha school of athletics but it’s strange that it her association with the legend hasn’t led to any change in her tactics yet.
During the 2010 Commonwealth Games too, she was considered a gold-medal prospect, but her chances of a podium finish evaporated as the race progressed. She finished sixth. At the 2014 Glasgow CWG, Tintu made the same tactical blunder. At the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, she, however, reached the semis. At the 2014 Asian Games (Incheon, South Korea), where the opposition wasn’t very strong, she managed to hold on to the lead and won silver. Despite the setback, Tintu’s time of 2:0.95 sec was well within the Rio Olympic qualification mark of 2:01.00.
In the women’s 3000m steeplechase, Lalita Babar only acted as a pacemaker and eventually finished eighth in 9:29.64 sec. The time was way off her personal best of 9:27.86 sec she clocked in the heats on Monday.