Even without the grassroots facilities necessary for spotting and nurturing athletic talent early, India manages to produce quality athletes from time to time. The average Indian parent is far more concerned with their child’s math prowess than their match prowess; with the result that sporting talent often remains undeveloped or altogether undiscovered. P U Chithra is a promising young talent in the track and field sphere; who reminds us of someone else…
She was born in Mundur of Palakkad District in Kerala. A small village with a population of about 17,000, Mundur is not exactly the centre for sporting achievement.
Chithra PU comes from a very humble background; both her parents being agricultural labourers. She has three siblings and is the third among them. She was the state’s star performer; winning the national school meet in Ranchi in 2014.
Chithra really started to grab national attention last year when she won the Gold at the South Asian Games. Previously she won gold medals in the 1500m, 3000m, 5000m race and 3 km cross country in 59th Indian National School Games, Ranchi, Orissa.
Recently she won the gold medal at the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships 2017 in Bhubaneswar in the 1,500 track event clocking in at just over 4 minutes 17 seconds. Not expecting to win gold, this was her own personal best time. Chithra was deterred not even by the rain on the given day.
The undergraduate student will now participate in the World Championships in London. She credits her success to coach Sijin NS her school PE teacher. It is telling that her talent was spotted and nurtured not by dedicated coaches or in an academy, but by her school teacher.
When she first started running, she would run barefoot. Even later, she would run without proper spikes.
I don’t know about you, but this lanky girl from Kerala with a toothy smile reminds me of another such… PT Usha was just such a success story against all odds; someone who was part of Indian athletics for nearly two decades.
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