Sumathira clocks personal best on way to clinching 400m gold
Sumathira Balakrishnan overcame her inherent shyness with a brave personal best effort of 56.39 seconds that earned her a much deserved gold in the girls’ 400m final at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
Sumathira was spotted three years ago at an event in Tiruchirapalli when she ran the 400m clocking 1min, 18 seconds. Under the tutelege of coach GR Prabhakar and having trained on the mud track at the Sports Authority of India centre in Rajanthottam in Mayiladuthurai, she caught the attention with a fine run.
Sumathira was aware she will have to go a notch higher than her best to beat a line-up that included SGFI National U17 winner Priscilla Daniel (Kerala), and silver-medallist Tai Bamhane and bronze medallist Payal Vohra (Delhi). Bamhane won the 800m event on Saturday.
Sumathira went all-out from the start in the third lane. She overtook Vohra at the halfway mark in the back straight. Turning into the home stretch, Sumathira secured herself an advantage over the long-striding Bamhane and Kerala’s Sandra AS who seemed to have exhausted much of their energy over the first 250m in opening up a lead.
Even though Sumathira’s running action had unwanted movements such as flailing hands and rolling head, she held her own and managed to cross the line well clear of Bamhane – in a personal best time of 56.39 seconds. The effort was the second fastest 400m by an Indian under-20 runner this season, the previous best being R Vithya’s 56.01. “I am happy but not satisfied since my coach had expected a better time,” she said.
Born to Kanagavalli and S Balakrishnan in August 2001, she is aware that she may have earned herself a ~ 5 lakh scholarship that can help her training and push towards winning an India call-up.
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