DUTEE storms into 200m final; heartbreak for Hima
Gold decoded: When coach Dhillon got Tejinderpal to shift focus from ailing father to Asiad
JAKARTA: Star Indian athlete Dutee Chand stormed into the women’s 200 metres final after topping the semi-finals at the Asian Games here on Tuesday.
But there was disappointment for India in the other semi-final, as rising star Hima Das was disqualified following a false start.
Dutee emerged on top of the overall table after clocking 23 seconds, followed by Bahrain’s Edidiong Odiong with a timing of 23.01. China’s Lingwei Kong finished third after clocking her personal best of 23.32 seconds. In the other semi-final that witnessed two false starts, teenaged Hima got a red card and was forced to leave her blocks before Hajar Alkhaldi of Bahrain also met similar fate. Earlier, Hima clocked 23.47 to finish fourth in Heat 2, just 200th of a second short of a direct semi-finals berth as Marie Knot of the Philippines took the third spot with 23.45. But the sprinter from Assam earned a berth in the semi-finals as one of the fastest losers in the heats as she was seventh in the overall standings. JAKARTA: Had it not been for some prudent decision making by Tejinderpal Singh Toor’s personal coach MS Dhillon, the star shot putter would have quit rather than shattering Asian Games record.
The 23-year-old athlete from Moga district in Punjab won a historic gold by hurling the iron ball to record-breaking distance of 20.75m.
When his father Karam Singh, who cajoled him into taking up shot put, was referred to an Army Hospital in New Delhi for chemotherapy, Tejinder wanted to focus on the treatment of his father.
Dhillon, who has been training Tejinder for the last five years, revealed that his ward could not give his best at the Commonwealth Games due to his father’s cancer.
In fact Karam Singh’s health deteriorated after Tejinder came back from Gold Coast.
“Prior to the Commonwealth Games, his father was serious but after he came back, he was more serious. His father was referred to Army Hospital in Delhi for chemotherapy. He was there for 10-15 days.
“On the second day, I called him and asked if you are training? He said: “I don’t feel like practising and I am not getting time. I am losing my rhythm. I can’t do it now. I want to quit.”
Earlier, during an Inter-university competition, Tejinder had pulled out a couple of hours before his event knowing about his father’s condition.
Sensing that years of hard work could have gone down the drain, Dhillon landed in Delhi with a mission — to get his student’s focus back to field from the hospital.
“I told him, ‘No, you can’t quit like this. The government is spending a lot of money on you and there are a lot of expectations from you’.
“I told him ‘you are not required there at the hospital, the doctors are doing their job. We started training but it was light training but he was not into it mentally. Then we went to Patiala and trained for one week.”
Tejinder was understandably still distracted and here Dhillon played a masterstroke.
“Sundays are for recovery. I thought he will go back home on off-days and chances are he again can get upset. Then I requested the Federation that they organise a camp in Dharamsala,” recalled Dhillon, which meant that Tejinder couldn’t visit his father, which could have shifted his focus.
“We did not come back for three months and only 15 days before the Games, we returned to Patiala to get acclimatized to the humid conditions, similar to Indonesia.”
Dhillon said he also made sure that Tejinder reached Jakarta 10 days before the competition, though, initially they were to reach here only on August 21.
The coach said it’s not just him but lot of other people who have help on shaping Tejinder’s career.
“So many people came forward to help him. Friends, relative and also an organization, headed by Sant Gurmeet Singh, backed him financially. They assured him for treatment of his father. All this helped him regroup and remain strong.”