“My main aim was the World Championships. So I decided to give it my all. For me it was either gold or nothing. Finishing second or fourth would have made no difference,” Saroj told TOI here.
“I was not in the reckoning to qualify for the Worlds based on my ranking so this was my best chance. I was closely following and monitoring the leaders, even their foot movements, before I made the move,” added Saroj, who is training in Colorado, USA, with coach Scott Simmons.
Aboobacker was 19th in the world rank list behind Praveen Chitravel (12) and Eldhose Paul (18) but now gets a direct entry to the Worlds in Budapest. The jumper said it was a comeback for him after lying low following an impressive run at the Commonwealth Games last year.
“I was tense after two rounds as I was lying seventh. Now, I want to do better than this at the Worlds and Asian Games. Last year, I missed the gold by a centimetre, so all my effort was to hear my national anthem while standing on the podium. I’m a soldier and it’s an honor for me to do the victory lap with the national flag,” said Aboobacker, who is based out of the Airforce station in Jalahalli, Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, Jyothi, who soon got a congratulatory message from IOC member and founder chairperson, Reliance Foundation, Nita Ambani, was upset with the few mistakes she committed that affected her winning time.
“It was a good race and I focused on attacking the first three hurdles. But then I lost balance at the 8th and 9th hurdles,” she said.
Coach James Hillier said but for the rain and a few mistakes, Jyothi would have had the record.
“But not to worry as the gold is most important. Masumi Aoki (bronze winner) had beaten Jyothi at the Asian indoors and today Jyothi beat her.”
After two grueling days the place he competed in 10 occasions, Tejaswin Shankar was once elated to win his first medal within the Asian Championships. The prime jumper, who lately moved to decathlon, stated he was once glad to get nearer to the 8000-point mark.
“It was once a large problem for me to do some other decathlon in 3 weeks however I overcame that. This was once a really perfect preparatory meet for the Asian Games,” stated Shankar.