Interstate athletics meet: Chitravel turns into third Indian to breach 17m mark in triple leap this 12 months

Triple jumper Praveen Chitravel’s coach Yoandri Betanzos has been placing in further effort to enhance his English abilities to speak higher along with his athlete, however the Tamil Nadu teen has ensured the two-time World Championship medallist additionally enriched his native vocabulary. Apart from English, the Cuban has additionally picked just a few “bad” phrases in Tamil that Chitravel believes is the one approach to encourage him.

“I’ve taught him a few bad words in Tamil. Only that works when he needs to pull me up for my mistakes. Nothing else seems to work. So, he asked me to teach him a few words in my language that will strike well. He’s a very silent and happy person. He keeps encouraging me to do better each time,” says Chitravel.

Even although the “bad” motivational phrases had been prevented throughout the triple leap finals on the Interstate Meet at Chennai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Tuesday, Chitravel was charged sufficient to supply a formidable 17.18m – the third-best leap by an Indian. Chitravel, who is barely the fifth Indian to cross the 17m barrier, additionally achieved the World Championship qualification mark of 17.17m within the course of.

Chitravel, who has been knocking on the 17m doorways for some time, lastly breached the mark to hitch the likes of Renjith Maheshwary (17.30m), Abdulla Aboobacker (17.19), Arpinder Singh (17.17m) and Karthik Unnikrishnan (17.10).

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Apart from nationwide report holder Maheshwary and 2018 Asian Games gold medallist Arpinder, the opposite members of the 17m membership have joined simply this 12 months.

“I have always been close to the mark but missed it due to some reason or the other. This time, everything fell in place and I am really pleased I could breach the 17m mark,” the JSW athlete mentioned.

Chitravel hasn’t visited dwelling within the final eight months to make sure that his coaching routine isn’t disrupted. After Tuesday’s victory, he gave his mom Prema a fast name to replace her with the outcomes. But she was already following the proceedings on reside streaming.

“I spoke to my mother. She cried seeing my jump live. She told me, ‘It’s your home ground, you know what to do, I don’t need to tell you what to do.’ It’s been 7-8 months since I went home. I am used to being away from home. I come from a sports family so they know the drill,” the 2018 Youth Olympics bronze medallist mentioned.

Valuable recommendation

Following the competitors from a lot nearer quarters was somebody who not solely is aware of the game inside out but in addition owns the triple leap nationwide mark set in 2016. Kerala’s Maheshwary has taken depart to journey to Chennai to witness the finals.

“I think any of these youngsters (Aboobacker, Chitravel, Eldhose Paul, Karthik) are capable of breaking my record. I came here expecting to see someone rewrite it. It is not good for the sport that a record stays in someone’s name for a long time,” Maheshwary mentioned.

He carefully noticed Chitravel’s jumps and had some suggestions for him as nicely. “He seemed to be in a rush to land after taking off from the board. He should take it a little easy and try to get more airtime and he will definitely get better distances,” says the nationwide mark holder.

The triple leap requirements have improved immensely within the nation in current occasions with Chitravel being the third to breach the 17m mark this 12 months itself. The huge Tamil cinema fan hasn’t determined but have a good time this current accomplishment. The trendy teen, who was as soon as timid, now handles the media with nice confidence and likes to pepper his responses with the most recent film dialogues. For a query on his journey forward, he shortly repeated a dialogue from Kamal Haasan’s newest launch Vikram.

“I’ve had a lot of doubts throughout my life. Like Kamal Haasan’s dialogue in Vikram, pathukalam da (we’ll see as it comes),” he says.

Chitravel, who earlier educated with coach Antony Yaich, is grateful for the data the Frenchman imparted throughout his stint and likewise shares an in depth bond with Yaich’s household. “I had my birthday recently. I got so many calls from France. They are like my family now,” he mentioned.

While Yaich labored on including tempo to his run-up, Betanzos largely works on his explosiveness. “Both (Betanzos and Yaich) are very similar. Differences are in training. Yaich focuses on speed and power but Yoandri focuses on explosive abilities and jumps specifically. He works on technique consistently,” Chitravel defined.