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The boarding announcement is audible within the background as Tejas Shirse struggles to wrap up the dialog. There is a lot he needs to percentage about his adventure, from his humble beginnings in Maharashtra’s Sambhaji Nagar to changing into the rustic’s quickest male hurdler to in any case with the ability to improve his circle of relatives, because of a contemporary Railways task he landed. For now regardless that, lower than 24 hours after he has run a 13.41s race to wreck the nationwide document on the Motonet GP in Finland’s Jyvaskyla, he will have to hop directly to a airplane to Brussels for the IFAM Outside meet (Might 25-26), a International Athletics Continental Excursion bronze degree match. There are extra races to be run, extra hurdles to be crossed.
For the previous month or so, the seven-member crew of observe athletes, together with Shirse, has been coaching in Spain’s Tenerife island. Criss-crossing international locations for competitions, yearning house meals, overcoming bouts of loneliness, Shirse reckons he has grown by means of leaps and limits, each as an individual and as an athlete.
“I’ve been actually residing out of a suitcase, however it has been a really perfect studying curve. I’ve progressed so much technically as neatly,” he stated.
An not likely catalyst in his enlargement tale has been Finland’s elite hurdler Elmo Lakka. The Tokyo Olympics semi-finalist skilled with the Indian bunch of athletes in Spain, and the delicate inputs he handed directly to Shirse helped him shave off a very powerful micro-seconds.
“I had 3-4 coaching periods with him. I requested him about his Olympics revel in and he informed me the trick lies in taking it as simply any other race. When you suppose it’s an important race of your lifestyles, you’re going to break it,” Shirse stated.
Technically, Shirse noticed his lead leg would “fly” over the hurdles whilst Elmo’s would “snap superbly.” In hurdles, the athlete’s endeavour is to minimise the time between take-off and touchdown with out hitting the hurdles. Shirse’s taste, he spotted, used to be proving counterproductive.
Elmo’s advice to begin the take off from slightly farther again labored wonders for Shirse. “He additionally suggested me to snap the lead leg (his left) with the hamstring as a substitute of the knee. It actually helped toughen the timings,” stated Shirse, who has surpassed his earlier perfect time of 13.60s — set final 12 months — three times already in Europe.
Any other space of growth is his posture on the hurdles. For Shirse, who stands six-feet tall — a mean peak amongst male hurdlers — the 106.7cm stumbling blocks are nearly waist prime. Leaping over them from the spot he used to be used to intended Shirse used to be shedding momentum.
“I want to stand as tall as imaginable. I additionally want to stay my frame ahead to make complete use of the momentum. Hurdles is a stop-start self-discipline and it’s difficult to retain velocity. For that, I attempt to stay my toes beneath my hips because it is helping keep momentum,” he defined.
The 21-year-old additionally persisted an harm to his left shin entering the contest. Shirse stumbled over a hurdle within the Netherlands right through coaching previous this month, two days after he gained the Harry Schulting Video games there (13.56s). “It used to be a foul fall and I slid at the observe, inflicting a friction burn. I could not stroll for the following two days,” he stated.
He then travelled to Germany for the B&S Kurpfalz Gala Weinheim and took the second one spot with a time of 13.60s. “That outcome gave me a large number of self belief and I entered the Finland match hoping to raised that point. I were chasing the nationwide mark for a while and to get that during a good box whilst nonetheless no longer being at my 100% bodily used to be nice.”
Whilst his trainer James Hillier, the Athletics Director at Reliance Basis, reckons that anticipating Shirse to fulfill the Paris qualification mark of 13.27s is a bit of “unrealistic at this level,” the younger Indian hurdler is not afraid to dream. He has his attractions skilled at the Olympics.
“Why no longer? Who would have idea that I might toughen my private perfect by means of 0.19s right here?”