MUMBAI: Long-distance runner
Lalita Babar
was declared winner of the TOISA Athlete of the Year Award at the
Mahindra Scorpio Times of India Awards in Mumbai on Monday.
Lalita, 27, was nominated in the category of the leading Indian athletes of 2016 along with
Tintu Luka
, Seema Punia and
Vikas Gowda
. She won on the basis of becoming the first Indian to qualify for the final of an athletics track event at the Olympics since
PT Usha in 1984, a feat which the TOISA jury felt was above all else.
In the women's 3000m steeplechase event at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Lalita finished fourth in Heat 2 with a national record timing of 9:19.76 (beating her previous best by seven seconds) which made her the fastest loser from all three heats, thus earning her a spot in the final. At one stage, after the second lap, Lalita had taken the lead but then fell on a hurdle and could not recover that gap.
In the final, Lalita finished 10th. Thirty-two years earlier at the Los Angeles Games, PT Usha had missed a podium finish in the 400m hurdles by one-hundredth of a second.
In April 2016, Lalita had broken the national record with a time of 9:27.09 at the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships in New Delhi.
Esteemed jury member Anju Bobby George, India's most decorated medal winner on the world athletic stage, rated Lalita's Rio performance as the best performance in Indian athletics last year. "There was no comparison, really. First the national record being broken, but what Lalita achieved in Rio was outstanding because unlike other events, when you get to Olympics you really are competing with the best in the business. To reach the final of an athletic track event at the Olympics is superb," said Anju, India's only athlete to win a medal at the World Track and Field Championships.
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