Spala is the favourite base once more for quarter-milers (Part I)

Muhammed Anas (right) winning the Asian championships 400m gold in Bhubaneswar in July, 2017, chased by Arokia Rajiv towards the finish. The two are once again in the forefront of India's relay campaign for the Asian Games. _Pic Courtesy: G. Rajaraman

The Olympic Training Centre at Spala, Poland, is reputed to be one of the best in the world. It was described as one of the top two in Europe by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Secretary, C. K. Valson, in 2016 when a batch of 38 Indian athletes trained there in preparation for the Rio Olympics.

The Sportstar quoted Valson thus at that time: “The Spala Olympic Centre is in the top two training facilities in Europe and one of the best in the world. We are thankful to (Ambassador of Poland) Tomasz Lukaszuk for his support,” AFI Secretary General C. K. Valson said at a media interaction.

The batch included 400m runners in both sections, mainly making a bid to qualify in the relays for the Rio Olympics, racewalkers and javelin throwers.

Rio proved yet another disappointing experience for the Indian athletes, with only steeplechaser Lalita Babar making the final.

This time, in preparation for the Asian Games in Jakarta, India has again sent its 400m runners to Spala with the Russia-born American coach Galina Bukharina and support staff. Kiev and Yalta used to be the favourite training destinations of AFI squads in the past. Strife in Ukraine prevented such trips during the past few years. Spala has gained the latest AFI vote, it would seem.

Once again, the focus is on the relay teams and hence seven runners each in the 400m in either section have been chosen for the Spala stint. A group of javelin throwers are training at Kuortane, Finland, while the middle and long-distance runners are based at Thimpu, Bhutan.

Olympic qualification at stake in 2016

Unlike in 2016, when qualification for the Olympics was the prime target in every athlete’s sights, there should be no worries this time at least for the leading athletes. Most of them have made the cut-off marks prescribed by the AFI (not to be confused with qualification since there can be minor deviations in the AFI guidelines in contrast to, say, an Olympic qualification mark). Of course, there is this business of repeating or coming close to those marks in the Inter-State in Guwahati from June 26 to make sure of selection.

“if they are not competing regularly in Europe, then why have they gone there with our own coaches and support staff”, asked a coach familiar with training methods towards peaking for a major competition, in this case the Asian Games in Jakarta in August.

Despite such apprehensions, the Spala batch seemed to have started off well with almost everyone turning in a good effort in their first meet in Poland, at Gliwice. Particularly impressive were Hima Das who clocked a PB 23.22s in winning the 200m and Muhammed Anas whose 200m win came in a PB 20.74s. Both had clocked PBs in the Commonwealth Games 400m, Hima a stunning 51.32s and Anas a national-record-breaking   45.31 seconds.

The question will then be, how far can they reach this season?

Hima is an unknown potential who broke through from nowhere this season to clock some of the most sensational timings seen in Indian athletics in a long, long time. In her first season in the 400m she has taken her PB to 51.32s in just two meets. Only three other Indians, Manjeet Kaur, K. M. Beenamol and Chitra Soman, have clocked better. Not even the great P. T. Usha (NR of 51.61s in 1985 that stood for 15 years) has clocked close to Hima’s best!

Is the Assam junior the most exceptional athletics talent that we have seen in a long time? We will have to wait and see for a couple of more years at least to know how much Hima can improve in both the 200m and 400m at the Asian and world level if she continues to compete in these two events.

Anas has had a tremendous run from 2016. Just when one thought this year he might not be able to return the national records that he had been turning in in the 400m, he came up with that 45.31s in the Commonwealth Games.

But the topic here is not the improvement shown by Hima Das or Anas but the necessity of a training camp in Spala for our 400m runners accompanied by our own coaches in the light of what was achieved in 2016. The issue gets sharply highlighted when one looks at the field in which the Indians are competing in their main event, the 400m, in both sections.

Competing among themselves

At Gliwice, the top four men and the top five women in the 400m were Indians. They must have felt like being in a meet at Patiala, Chennai or Bengaluru! In Wroclaw where the Indians competed on June 13, the top three in the men’s and top five among women, in the 400, were Indians.

It is not that Poland lacks quality competition. On June 8, at Chorzow, the top two men in 400m ran sub-45. Third was Polish Karol Zalewski in 45.15s. In the women’s 400m, the top five timed sub-52s; there were three Poles in that. The top Polish woman, Justina Swiety-Ersetic (51.11s) beat none other than the great Allyson Felix (51.35s).

Let’s look back at what happened in 2016 in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

If the aim for the training at a foreign location is at least qualification followed by a season best performance in a global or continental meet, then the Spala exercise in 2016 was a failure. Mind you, despite criticism in the media against he being brought back after the “doping scandal” of 2011, Ukrainian coach Yuriy Ogorodnik was engaged, not just for the women’s 4x400m team but also for the men’s longer relay team.

Our top male quarter-miler Muhammed Anas returned two national record timings of 45.44s and 45.40s on two consecutive days in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in June, 2016. Less than seven weeks later after having attended a camp of around six weeks in Poland, he returned 45.95s for a sixth-place finish in the first-round heats of the Olympics and was eliminated.

Arokia Rajiv, who was the No. 1 quarter-miler in the country till Anas came along, had also bettered a national record that season. That was 45.47s in the Fed Cup in New Delhi on 29 April. Through about two months of hard training in Poland, Rajiv could not better that and failed to clinch a place in the individual event for the Olympics. The qualification standard stood at 45.40s. He timed 46.24s in winning the final trial in Bengaluru on 11 July. Anas and Rajiv are once again the leading figures in India's 4x400m relay team.

P. P. Kunhumohammed, the third best 400m runner that season, also had his personal best 46.08s in New Delhi in April. In June and July he had two timings of 46.24s in Bydgoszcz and Bengaluru.

Ayyasamy Dharun completed the quartet that clocked two national records that season, 3:02.17 in Erzurum, Turkey on 12 June, and that awe-inspiring 3:00.91 in Bengaluru on 11 July, the last date for qualification. That timing ensured that the team would go to Rio. Dharun also returned his PB of 46.30 in New Delhi in April and then went through an unsuccessful attempt to achieve the Olympic qualification.

It was unfortunate that the men’s relay team got disqualified for a faulty exchange  in the heats after finishing seventh in 3:02.24.(Britain was the other team to be disqualified in the same heat).

That disqualification apart, what did the male quarter-milers achieve from their Spala sojourn that was inexplicably shortened when the team was asked to come home and compete in the inter-State meet in Hyderabad? The original plan was to train in Poland right up to August.

Back in 2010 when the question was raised about an extended camp in Yalta, Ukraine, a Government official had rather suggestively remarked that it seemed the Black Sea breeze was very beneficial for our athletes. Spala might yet beat the record of Kiev and Yalta in 2010.

(Contd part II)