India’s great leap: Historic gold-silver in triple jump at Commonwealth Games 2022 | Commonwealth Games 2022 News

BIRMINGHAM: The Indian women’s cricket team came heartbreakingly close to finally winning an elusive title, but imploded against Australia, world champs in both T20I and ODIs, to lose by 9 runs at Birmingham on Sunday. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise exhilarating day that witnessed three gold medals in boxing, a redemption bronze for the women’s hockey team after 16 years of trying, and the unusual sight of three young men almost pulling off an unprecedented clean sweep of medals in the triple jump.

For once, the Indian participants in an athletics event weren’t hanging on the margins, hoping for someone in the leader pack to suddenly implode. They were the leader pack, and it felt so disbelievingly different as triple jumpers Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker consulted among themselves around the pit, only to be finally separated by a mere 0.01 cm for gold-silver. Praveen Chitravel narrowly missed out on the bronze.
As Paul and Aboobacker reposed faith in India’s old-as-time sporting diversity, Annu Rani won an unprecedented bronze in the women’s javelin. Sandeep Kumar won a bronze in the 10,000m walk.

History-makers Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker make it a Sunday to remember
It was Sunday and the spectator count at the Alexander Stadium was brimming. It would soon prove the perfect setting for India’s triple jumpers, Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker from Kerala, and Praveen Chithravel, from Tamil Nadu.
Like most of the jumpers, Paul likes to get the crowd behind his back by clapping his hands, get his adrenaline going before making the run towards the take-off board. Abdulla is the more focused one. He seldom takes his eyes off the target – the take-off board. Both elite jumpers, but with different working styles.
However, it was Bermuda’s Jah-Nhai Perinchief who set the pace in the triple jump event. The 24-year-old’s first jump was a massive 16.92m. Chithravel was the best among the Indians with a 16.75m, while Paul recorded 14.62m and Aboobacker 16.57m.

Before the CWGAboobacker’s personal best was 17.19m while Paul’s sat at 16.99m. Both began by being short of those marks by considerable margins. In the ‘Indian corner’ of the stands, the tension was rising. High-jumper Tejaswin Shankarlong-jumper Murali Sreeshankar and steeplechaser Avinash Sable were all at hand to cheer their fellow athletes.
Then Paul produced the special that he needed in his third jump. It was a 17.03m, a personal best and one that leapfrogged him to top position. Chithravel got a 16.89m in his third, pushing him to third spot.
Aboobacker managed a 16.71m to hold the fourth position. Aboobacker had to wait till his fifth jump to get his timing right. He produced an impressive 17.02m in his fifth to climb to second place and pushed compatriot Chithravel out of the top three to the fourth place.

Perinchief clinched the bronze with 16.92m, denying the Indians a clean sweep. After knowing they had clinched the top two spots, Paul and Aboobacker got two Indian flags from the stands and wrapped themselves in the Tricolor for the lap of honour, not once but twice, as if they didn’t want their moment of glory to ever end.
“I came here to record a personal best and I did that, and it automatically earned me the gold,” he said after the 800m-long victory lap. “I had confidence because we were jumping good distances in training and there were good conditions for jumping today,” he added, referring to the +3.1 wind assistance he got for the 17.03m that he jumped for the gold.
“I tried to get my personal best (17.19m), but I am still happy I got over 17 (17.02m),’ said second-placed Aboobacker, “I want to thank my teammates (Paul and fourth-placed Chithravel). For India to go one-two here is fantastic, and we are all supporting each other. We have been training together, we were advising each other today. Now we all will celebrate together.”

Before Birmingham, India had won a silver and three bronze medals in triple jump at the Commonwealth Games. Mohinder Singh Gill won India’s first medal, a bronze at the 1970 Games, which he bettered with a silver in 1974.