Sweet taste of success for long-jumper Jeswin

Mudalur, a village in the Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu, has been renowned for its sweet dish muscoth halwa. Now, Mudalur has something else to be proud of, courtesy Jeswin Aldrin, the grandson of Joseph Abraham, who made muscoth halwa popular in 1960s.

Aldrin won gold in the men’s long jump event at the recently-concluded first leg of Indian Grand Prix (IGP) at Thiruvananthapuram.

His family’s thriving sweet business notwithstanding, long-jump was Jeswin’s calling right from his school days. “Initially my father wasn’t too keen on me pursuing sports but as I began to win medals in the bigger events, he relented. My family has been a pillar of support,” the 20-year-old told TOI. He crossed an impressive 8.20M at the IGP to outsmart the seasoned Mohammed Anees Yahiya (7.70M). Jeswin’s effort was just 2cm short of the qualification mark set for the World championships later this year, and 6cm short of M Sreeshankar’s National record.

Sreeshankar had skipped the event as he was training for the upcoming World Indoors in Belgrade. Interestingly, Jeswin had switched to high jump briefly- with his best being 1.85M- but moved back to long jump about five years ago. The trio- Sreeshankar, Jeswin and Anees- will be closely tracked in what promises to be a busy year with events such as the Worlds, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

“I was targeting 8M but finishing with 8.20M was definitely a surprise. The target is to continue improving,” said Jeswin, who is currently coached by two-time world championship triple jumper medallist Yoandris Francis Betanzos at the JSW's Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS). Jeswin had caught everyone’s attention when he produced a jump of 7.97M during the South Zone junior athletics meet in Kerala last February. Before training under Betanzos, Jeswin was coached by Frenchman Antony Yaich for about two and half years.

Jeswin, a second-year student at the Madras Christian College, believes he will only get better in the coming months. “The final jump is an area I am working on. Apart from that, I work hard on my fitness and staying in the best shape possible,” he said.

Despite following a strict diet regime for the better part of the year, Jeswin does indulge in halwa each time he is home. “His former coach Antony would often complain that the youngster’s hard work goes for a toss when he comes back home and feasts on halwa,” revealed Jeswin’s uncle Simon Isaac. A string of high-profile tournaments in the coming months mean that Jeswin has to be at the peak of his fitness and form. For that to happen, he may have to forego having his favourite sweet dish for now.