Eldhose Paul, Abdulla Aboobacker: How two of coach Hari Krishnan's boys made history at Commonwealth Games

Kolkata: Commonwealth Games 2022 will be etched in the memories of the Indian lateral and high jumpers as the contingent returned with a haul of four medals, including a historic one-two in the triple jump by Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker.

The results were a stark contrast to the 2022 World Athletics Championships, where javelin star Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a silver medal. The medal came 19 years after long jump legend Anju Bobby George won the nation's first-ever medal, a bronze, at the biggest showdown.

July's Oregon event, thought, brought no fond memories for the lateral jumpers as the likes of Murali Sreeshankar, Muhammed Anees (long jumpers), Paul, Aboobacker, Eldhose Paul, Praveen Chithravel (triple jumpers) had dismal outings despite a strong domestic season in the build-up.

Congratulations to Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker on winning Gold and Silver respectively in triple jump at the #CWG2022. They have made Kerala and India proud with this pioneering feat. Wishing them more success in the future. pic.twitter.com/wTWlLwRgM5

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) August 7, 2022

Only Eldhose, among the three triple jumpers, could reach the finals as a 17m jump was unfathomable. The results were perplexing as Abdulla, who jumped 17.19m in May, could not even go past 16.50m.

Getting updates on his disciples' failures from Oregon over a phone call in Bengaluru, coach Hari Krishnan was somewhat helpless as a visa issue meant he couldn't join his two jumpers in the USA.

"I was informed over the call that Eldhose made the final but Aboobacker was slow," recalled Hari. "Slow where exactly was my first question; in the beginning, in between the run-up, or before the jump? I wanted answers as I couldn't watch the event live."

The 35-year-old coach wasn't losing sleep over the results as he knew this was the first time that Abdulla and Eldhose were competing outside the country. However, Abdulla's sudden dip suggested he required the coach's presence at the earliest.

"Oregon is a memory I would like to forget," 26-year-old Abdulla told Firstpost. "Competing in a foreign tournament for the first time, I was training all alone for the first two weeks as coach couldn't make it while Eldhose came in late too. Something as simple as how to keep your muscles warm without tiring them out in cold conditions was unknown to us and only picked it before Commonwealth Games."

The damage was already done to Abdulla as access to the footage of his jumps revealed to the coach that his technique was all over the place. The makeshift solution was to take the training sessions over video calls. Inconvenient, yes, but it was the only option as Harikrishnan had to stay awake the entire night for up to four hours of the video session.

"Eldhose and Abdulla were concerned about the idea of asking me to stay awake the whole night due to the 12-hour time difference but I had to tell them it's not an issue as coaching them was my duty and I am willing to fulfill it," said the coach.

The comeback in Birmingham

Eldhose Paul knew it right away

His 17.03m triple jump which launched him into a CWG gold pic.twitter.com/5hAq118XOy

— Sportstar (@sportstarweb) August 7, 2022

The efforts paid dividends two weeks later in Birmingham as Eldhose and Abdulla claimed the gold and silver medals respectively. Just 0.1 metre separated Eldhose (17.03m) from Abdulla but what made their performance further historic was the mental barrier of 17m being breached in a quadrennial event for the first time since national record holder Renjith Maheshwary jumped 17.07m at the 2010 CWG.

"This win was surely down to Hari sir," said Eldhose. "He has been a coach and a friend to us, who understands the sports and likes to deal with us all separately with his modern training ways. We can go to him with any problem at any hour and he's there for us. He doesn't have a one-size fit for all training method as he understands us all individually."

Working as a team

For Hari, it's not him alone but the cohesiveness of his campers, including two others in Karthik Unnikrishnan (who couldn't make it to the big-ticket events with a thigh issue) and youngster Gailey Vennister, that did the trick at the Commonwealth. The coach has been familiar with at least three of them since 2018 as he handpicked them for training at the Air Force before uniting with them at the AFI national camp in 2021.

"At the national camp, four of them are like a team. Since 2021, they have been training together and spent almost the entire years together which makes them a family. I train them but on the pit as well they compliment each other by raising the standards of competition for each other to follow," said Hari.

Raising the bar at domestic level

May's Indian Grand Prix IV in Bhubaneshwar certainly showed the abilities of Hari's boys as Abdulla leapt his career best of 17.19m while Karthik came up with his personal best of 17.10m. Eldhose, who started the season strong with 16.99m at the Federation Cup, also jumped a credible 16.87m to form the podium.

Chithravel joined the competition in less than a month's time at the National inter-states for the top spot with a jump of 17.18m while Abdulla responded with a 17.14m jump and Eldhose showed consistency again at 16.81m.

"I think the four of us have really raised our game at the domestic level," said Abdulla. "We have shown multiple times this season we are capable of getting those big results. With a bit more international exposure and experience I think we are capable of doing much more than this if the same team sticks together!"

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