Triple jump’s band of brothers dares to dream

Eldhose Paul, Abdulla Aboobacker, Praveen Chithravel and Karthik Unnikrishnan have raised their level and given Indian athletics new hope. With greater support and international exposure, they will have the platform to show that the CWG success wasn’t a one-off 

Eldhose Paul used to be a decent cricketer. A fast-bowler, he played college-level tournaments.

“Whenever I got time after my athletics workouts, I used to play cricket for my college team, I’ve played for MA College [at Kothamangalam, Ernakulam] in MG University events too,” says the 25-year-old.

“But there was nobody to guide me about how to go about cricket, to do proper workouts. And cricket is an expensive sport.”

Perhaps it is for the best that Paul did not get swept away by the cricket wave. For the young man has made history in another sport, the triple jump.

Paul finished ninth at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon (USA) in late July and last month became the first Indian triple jumper to win the Commonwealth Games gold, in Birmingham. The joy was doubled, with his very consistent training-mate Abdulla Aboobacker taking silver. Praveen Chithravel missed the bronze by four centimetres.

The 17m in triple jump used to be a rare thing in Indian athletics. Olympian Renjith Maheswary first entered the elite circle with 17.04m in June 2007 in Guwahati. And before this year, Asian Games gold medallist Arpinder Singh was the last to cross 17m with 17.09 in 2018.

And when former Asian champion Maheswary jumped 17.30m in 2016 (he was fourth in the world list that year) for a new National record in Bengaluru, a month before the Rio Olympics, many rubbed their eyes in disbelief.