Rio 2016: Lalita Babar overcomes pain to finish 10th

RIO DE JANEIRO: Lalita Shivaji Babar is a hardy lady, with a big heart. She comes from a family of farmers in drought-affected Satara district of Maharashtra and is used to a tough life.
She took to running early, long distances. She made her name as a marathon runner - winning three Mumbai Marathon titles - but shifted attention to 3000m steeplechase some years back.Her Belarussian coach Nikolai Snesarev - known to be a very tough taskmaster - pushed her through a new regimen and the results came. She became the Asian champion in 2015 and qualified for Rio Games.
For an Indian track athlete, that should have been enough. No Indian has qualified for a track event final in Olympics after PT Usha. But for Lalita it was just a factoid, footnote if you like. She had to push the barriers. She wanted to be in the final and race with the best. She qualified in a career-best time of 9:19.76 creating history of sorts; she was ready.
On a day India was celebrating its 70th Independence Day, Lalita went for broke ­ at the Olympic stadium here at 11.15 am. It was hot but that was the last thing on the minds of this exclusive bunch of 18 women.
Lalita, known to run from the front, took some time to settle down but was in the leading pack till the first two laps. Bahrain's Ruth Jebet had set a searing pace and was running away from the others. At the halfway mark, Lalita was in top 10, pushing to go further up, digging into her reserves.

The top three looked done by then they were way, way ahead. As Jebet stepped on the gas, and USA's Emma Coburn and Hyvin Jepkemoi tussled for the silver, Lalita was more than 100m behind, striving for her best timing.
She finished a creditable 10th, though her time of 9:22.74 was some way off her best. She was not complaining though. "I tried my best. Being in the final was special for me. It was hot but that was again not a worry for me. We Indians are used to it. Yes, my timing could have been better."
Lalita had hurt her right leg after tripping over a hurdle in the qualification. You could see a long cut on her right knee. Did it hamper her race? "Not really. There was pain but I was not thinking about it. We steeplechase runners are used to these things."
No complaints, no excuses. That's Lalita for you. A top-10 finish will stay with this 27-year-old, and motivate her to stretch her limits.