KUMARAVEL PREMKUMAR 19

ORTHANADU, TAMIL NADU Junior Long Jump Record Holder

KUMARAVEL PREMKUMAR, 19, is on his mark. In a flash he’s running, long limbs flying, till he lands, kicking up a sandy halo around him. The Pachiyappas School ground in Chennai is strewn with paper cups and garbage— not the training facility that befits India’s junior long jump champion. But he isn’t bothered. It’s his home. “I live here with seven other athletes,” says Premkumar, who set a national record of 7.86 m in the junior level in Bangalore in 2010, and topped it with 7.92 m at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship trials in January 2012.

Hailing from Orthanadu village in Thanjavur, 300 km from Chennai, Premkumar didn’t take up sport seriously until he was 15. “My school games teacher asked me to focus on sports,” he says. Victories at various state meets caught the eye of P. Nagarajan, head coach of Prime Sports Academy, Chennai. “I convinced him to move to Chennai,” says Nagarajan.

The decision was difficult. “My father passed away when I was two years old, and I didn’t know if I could live away from my mother,” says Premkumar. His mother, Uma Rani, who worked as a cook in the local diocese church to make both ends meet, initially said no. “I had to convince her that this is what I wanted to do, that if I had to achieve something as an athlete, I would have to avail of better facilities and training in Chennai,” says the champion.

Premkumar’s trophy

cabinet includes bronze medals from several Asian meets. He finished 8th at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona in July. Premkumar admits he has a long way to go, but his long- term goal is to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. For now, passing high school is a priority. “I failed in the commerce paper. I’m going to sit for it again this October,” he says sheepishly.

“PREM CAN MAKE IT TO THE OLYMPICS. HE WAS THE ONLY INDIAN TO WIN A MEDALATTHE ASIAN INDOOR ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIP IN CHINA.”

P. Nagarajan, Premkumar’s coach at Prime Sports Academy, Chennai