Thabitha makes it a golden double

CHENNAI: PM Thabitha - who reigned supreme in the girls 100M hurdles at the

Asian youth athletics championships

in

Hong Kong

on Friday - bagged her second gold on Saturday. The 17-year-old clinched the yellow metal in the girls'

long jump

event with a distance of 5.86m.


Thabitha's coach P Nagarajan felt she could have performed even better. "At the youth Nationals held at

Raipur

last month, Thabitha had covered a distance of 5.92M. Nevertheless, it's a fantastic achievement for her as she has put in a lot of hard work and deserves nothing but the gold," Nagarajan told TOI.

Nagarajan believes that Thabitha will not have much problem when she graduates to the senior category. "Thabitha is a natural athlete. All she needs to do from now on is focus on her fitness levels and be thorough with preparation," Nagarajan added.

On her part, Thabitha said she was confident of doing well before the competition started. "My practice sessions had gone well. It was all about executing my plans and once I did that - the results followed," she said.

Thabitha hails from a humble background, her father Philip Maheswaran being an auto driver. She has two elder sisters and a younger brother who is a high-jumper. "Despite facing numerous obstacles, my parents were always there for support and that's what kept me going," Thabitha mentioned.

At the age of 12, Thabitha got hooked to athletics after winning a girls' 200M event in school. Once Philip became aware of Thabitha's talent, he did everything possible to fuel her dream. "As an auto driver, our finances are limited. We just about make our ends meet with about Rs 15,000 per month. Despite our limited means, Thabitha has gone on to do well through sheer grit and hard work. As parents, there is so much that we learn from Thabitha in terms of her never-say-die attitude and a smile all the time," Philip said.

Philip credited Nagarajan for grooming Thabitha into a fine athlete. "He moulded Thabitha by introducing her to world-class training methods at St Joseph's Sports Academy. She has also gets a lot of support from her school (Jaigopal Garodia government girls' higher secondary school at Virugambakkam) with regards to attendance and special classes," he said.