When Jyothika froze and let a gold slip out of her grasp to finish second

Thiruvananthapuram: It was bizarre and almost inexplicable. Parli HSS’ Jyothika M, having taken an unassailable lead in the junior girls’ 400m hurdles, standing still on the track for a few seconds and thereby losing out on a sure shot gold medal on Day 2 of the 64th Kerala State Athletics Meet at the Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium here on Sunday.The athlete nor her coach could not properly explain what happened to Jyothika in those precious seconds but everyone who watched the event stood in disbelief seeing how the athlete let a certain gold out of her grasp. After winning the junior girls 400m on Saturday, Jyothika was expected to complete a double in the hurdles event on Sunday. Even though she had a slow start in the 400m hurdles final, Jyothika gradually gained pace and overtook all her fellow competitors. By the time they reached the final curve, Jyothika had an unassailable lead over her rivals. But that’s when she froze. While crossing the final hurdle, Jyothika stood still for a few seconds on the track. By the time she regained her composure and crossed the finish line, Antreesa Mathew of SNGHS, Bharananganam in Kottayam had grabbed the gold medal. Despite missing nearly four seconds, Jyothika finished just 1.52 seconds behind Antreesa, thanks to the enormous lead she possessed earlier. “I don't know what happened,” said a tearful Jyothika. "She was our star and we had high hopes for her," said PG Manoj, the physical education teacher of Parli HSS. “Our whole camp wore a despondent look after that event. It was evident in the events that followed where our athletes were not able to perform at their best," he added. This was Jyothika's second state meet. She has one more event to compete in this edition—the 200m.