2015 on his mind as Jinson Johnson heads to Bangkok
The Hindu
After battling injuries and Covid, the Asian Games champion Jinson Johnson will be returning to a major championship after four years
Five years ago as Jinson Johnson walked around with a gold and silver from the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, many were wondering how far he would go. The next year he broke his own 1500m National record, bringing it down to 3:35.24s in Berlin, and looked set to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where the entry standard was 3:35.00.
Clearly, Johnson appeared to be enjoying a bright phase with more happy days ahead.
But life has its strange twists and turns. Johnson was forced to pull up in 800m final at the Doha Asian Championships in April 2019 with a calf injury and a few months after his national record-breaking run in Berlin, he suffered an Achilles tendon injury. Covid followed and last year he had a hamstring injury.
Having lost some of his best years to injury and Covid, Johnson is now back for next week’s Asian Championships in Bangkok, his first major championship in four years. And the 2018 and 2019 Asian leader is now 14th in this year’s list, a chart which has four Japanese in the top 10.
His current situation has now made Johnson run to 2015 for comfort.
“I’ll be going to the Thailand Asians with the same sort of feeling I had when I went for the 2015 Asians in Wuhan, China. That was my first international meet and I was very excited then. This is a sort of new start for me,” said Johnson, in a chat with The Hindu, from Bengaluru on Friday.
“I did my best then, got a medal (silver, 800m)...the previous year, no Indian male had got a medal at the Asian Games in middle-distance events. Now, I’m looking to do my best.”
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