Eldhose Paul: Son of a daily-wage labourer who broke the 17m 'mental barrier' at Commonwealth Games

Kolkata: June 2022 was a new beginning for young Eldhose Paul, who was competing in a foreign event for the first time in Kazakhstan's capital Almaty. While the quality of competition was not something to look forward to with no major international names in the field, it was the cold air that was blowing through his nostrils and the unfamiliar central Asian conditions that was the challenge on the day.

For someone, who has lived in tropical weather all his life, Eldhose had little idea on how to get those muscles heated up in order to get going.

"It was more of a suffering than competing," the Commonwealth Games gold medallist tells Firstpost from Bengaluru. "I never witnessed such harsh weather before. It gets cold in India as well in winters but nothing prepared me for Almaty."

The 25-year-old Keralite's average jump of 16.55m was enough to ensure a silver medal but also gave him a reality check. Those promising 16.9om-plus jumps that came in the comfort of home conditions would mean nothing if he didn't find a way to replicate them in unfamiliar conditions.

The stakes were only getting high for the young man in a month's time as he had to compete against the best names at the World Athletics Championships followed by the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. The Worlds were a further eye-opener as Eldhose just couldn't get those big jumps in the chilly, windy Oregon weather. His 16.79m effort in the triple jump final was still a welcome sight as he finished ninth in the 12-man showdown.

However, the triple jumper knew the results were a mere footnote in a tournament dominated by javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra's silver medal and could very well be the case in Birmingham as well if he didn't step things up soon.

What made Eldhose believe he could still pull it off was the fact that he is capable of the big jumps, something he proved time and again at the domestic competitions with top spot at the National Open and at the Federation Cup.

"It was confused at the beginning, to be honest. Competing with names whom you only saw on YouTube before. Took a while for me to understand this is where I belong. By the end of the World Championship, I knew I needed my body to get used to the conditions as soon as possible," said Eldhose.

Mental barrier of 17 metre

On a personal level, the 17-metre mark was still on his mind as Eldhose came mighty close to breaching it in Thenhipalam when he jumped 16.99m. However, breaching the standard was difficult at an international level, that too at an event where the last time an Indian jumped beyond 17 was Renjith Maheswary at the 2010 Delhi CWG for a bronze medal.

Not glorifying the mark too much, 17m has been breached several times by names like Arpinder Singh and Renjith, who holds the national record of 17.30m, but none did it in foreign conditions.

However, last Saturday, Indian fans had the luxury to watch two of their athletes Eldhose and Abdullah Aboobacker go past the mark at 17.03m and 17.02m respectively to take the top two spots in a historic moment.

Double sweep in Triple Jump!

Eldhose Paul & Abdulla Aboobacker create history for Team sealing and in Triple Jump at@birminghamcg22
Praveen Chitravel finished 4th in the event.#EkIndiaTeamIndia | #WeAreTeamIndia pic.twitter.com/WTeZow7qfj

— Team India (@WeAreTeamIndia) August 7, 2022

"It was a mental barrier for us, no matter wherever we are competing, whether it's India or abroad. I feel lack of exposure was the issue in the past. But the standard of the Indian triple jump has improved in the recent past. I think that really made it possible that two of us won medals," said Eldhose.

Indeed the level of competition has gone up in the recent past and the records are there for many to see. Apart from the two medal winners, there have been consistent performers at the national circuit in Pravin Chihtravel (finished fourth at CWG), Karthik Unnikrishnan (personal best of 17.10m in May). The advent of the youngsters also saw the likes of Arpinder and Mohammed Salahuddin enduring a slump in form but it will be too early to write them off as well.

Nobody understands that better than Eldhose, who feels most of the athletes in India endure a hard time before making it to the top as has been the story of the man from Kerala's Ernakulam district as well.

Son a daily-wage labourer

Unlike some of the top track and field names in the country, Eldhose wasn't someone who stood out from his early days. Being a son of daily-wage labourer Kochuthottathil Paulose, working hard to earn his meal is something that came naturally to him. This transcended to his game as well when he took to triple jump in his school as Eldhose was never someone who used his humble background as an excuse.

"I feel every athlete in India comes from a poor background and they work hard to overcome it. I never sulked about coming from a poor family, I knew it's a problem and I have to overcome it," said Eldhose.

Competing at the inter-school level and district level, his perseverance soon paid divideds as he was picked up by the Mar Athanasius College in Kothamanglam, a hotbed for providing India with some of its finest athletes. His framework at 5 feet and 8 inches was still considered a shortcoming as triple jumpers historically boast of athletes with tall heights.

However, it meant little to TP Ouseph, formative years coach of Anju Bobby George and, at the college, who understood Eldhose's love for the game and put him under a slow-training method to overcome his height deficiency.

"In the first year of my college I was jumping 13.4m but TP Ouseph sir was very patient with me. He played an important role in shaping me into a proper triple jumper and my performance improved under him from 13 to 15 metres. It made me realise I can take up triple jump as career choice," he said.

In 2017 the first breakthrough arrived for Eldhose, who was soon recruited into the Indian navy and an ever-growing graph from there on in the Inter-Services Nationals followed by other national events meant he soon caught the attention of AFI's former foreign coach Bedros Bedrosian, who brought Eldhose to the national camp in Trivandrum in 2019 when the jumper gave his personal best of 16.43m.

Three years, down the line, after setting a new standard for India at the international level, the ambitious athlete in Eldhose wants to reach further heights in his career.

"I missed the Olympics last year and I don't want to miss another. I am eyeing the national record as well and want to stand at the podium of the Paris Olympics," concluded Eldhose.

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