quarter-hour is what determined West Bengal’s athlete Moumita Mondal destiny on an eventful day of Athletics on the Nationwide Video games 2025 on the Maharana Pratap Sports activities Faculty on Sunday.
The athlete from West Bengal received two medals whereas shuffling between 110m hurdles (silver medal) and lengthy soar occasion (gold medal).
She is used to enjoying in occasions often overlapping with others however this was the primary time that she completed one occasion and hushed again to the opposite one with lactic acid troubling her.
Moumita gave powerful competitors to Nationwide file holder Jyothi Yarraji and clocked her private better of 13.36s to win the silver and stunned everybody with a soar of 6.21m to win the lengthy soar gold.
“If I had extra time to get well, I might need jumped nearer to my private finest (6.41m) and achieved higher timing within the hurdles,” Moumita advised The Indian Categorical after her double medal-winning feat.
Affected by the exhaustion of the hurdle race, Moumita jumped a sub-par 5.96m in her first try on the lengthy soar.
Following the poor soar, Moumita determined to skip the second try and take further relaxation. The remaining helped her finally as she touched the 6m mark on her third try and bettered it additional to file the gold medal-winning mark of 6.21m on the fifth try.
Story continues beneath this advert
“I used to be very drained in the course of the first jumpt as my physique refused to run submit the hurdles. That’s the reason I skipped the second try which gave me ample quantity to relaxation and get well. Had the occasions been not too shut, I might have simply touched my private finest within the lengthy soar,” Moumita defined.
Moumita and her teaching workers knew in regards to the conflict of occasions when the tentative schedule got here in and tried to speak to the officers about it.
“We tried to speak with the federation concerning the timing of the occasion but it surely didn’t assist a lot. If the hurdle occasion was after the soar, it will have been higher however that’s how it’s now,” quipped Moumita.
Fascinating selection of occasions
Normally you received’t discover athletes doing one observe occasion and one area occasion, however Moumita enjoys her time doing each.
Story continues beneath this advert
Nonetheless, there are challenges she has to face as a consequence of her shorter stature. Specifically in hurdles the place her physique knocks out the hurdles as a rule.
“I’m very glad that at this time I didn’t knock any hurdle down. As a consequence of my peak, every time I attempt to lower the hurdles quicker, the hurdle will get knocked out costing me my private bests,” stated Moumita.
“Additionally as a consequence of my leaping observe, I fly over hurdles losing extra time. The peak of the hurdle is 84 centimetres and I often go at 95-100 cms,” she defined additional.
To place in context, if a hurdler retains the minimal hole between their physique and the hurdle, they save plenty of time.
Story continues beneath this advert
However as a consequence of her shorter stature and leaping approach, Moumita loses plenty of time entire crossing the hurdles.
“I’m attempting to enhance the hole between physique and the hurdle whereas crossing the hurdle. My velocity between the hurdles have improved and the subsequent factor I’ll work on my strategy of crossing the hurdles,” stated Moumita.
When requested about if she is going to ever select between her occasions, Moumita quipped,” I cannot select between them and do each together with heptathlon. My coach James Hillier calls me ‘Bengal Tiger’ and the Bengal Tiger by no means offers up.”
Grinding laborious on the nationwide circuit for previous 5 years, Moumita lastly had her breakthrough second and as she claims, the journey has simply began for the Bengal Tiger.