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Bringing throws out of the shadows

Stan Rayan

Saranya James . — Photo: S. Mahinsha

KOCHI: She has her roots in Tamil Nadu, is a quiet sort of girl and has problems handling Malayalam. But the stocky Saranya James is creating a revolution of sorts in Kerala athletics.

Famed for its runners, hurdlers and jumpers for long, the land of Usha, Shiny, Yohanan and Anju is now proving that it could do well in the throws too, with a little bit of effort.

And Saranya, the current U-16 junior National champion in shot put, is an interesting product of a Kerala Sports Council project — the two-year-old Throws Academy in Kollam — that hopes to bring the throws out of the shy shadows.

"I think Saranya is the first shot put National champion from Kerala," says former National throws coach P. Radhakrishnan, the coach at the Throws Academy at Kollam's Centralised Sports Hostel. There are others too, like Aswini Shyamgopan, Anju Prasad, Antresa Varghese, K.Sajitha, Sajitha James, who show a lot of promise with the iron ball, the discus or the javelin.

Saranya's parents hail from Nagercoil, but she was brought up at hilly Elappara in Kerala's Idukki District. "My parents are working in a tea estate there," she said.

With both her elder sisters good at shot put, Saranya took to the sport rather naturally. And she was a good sprinter too in her early years.

Big edge

This combination, feels her coach Radhakrishnan, gives her a big edge. "There is a certain explosive muscle quality in sprints, this gives her an advantage in the shot put too," he said.

Saranya came to the academy two years ago after her talent and potential was first spotted at the State schools meet in Kannur where she won the under-14 shot-put gold. Leaving Idukki — where Tamil is more popular than Malayalam in the tea estates — must have been a big problem, but when she was admitted to the SN Trust School in Kollam, she found to her joy that the institution had Tamil as a second language.

After winning the South Zone, Schools National and the Junior National titles, the 16-year-old modestly says, "I want to do well in future too."

`We have the potential'

Kerala has had some good javelin throwers in the past. Shiny Varghese, who held the women's National record for a brief while in the late eighties, and Shahul Hameed immediately come to mind but the State was never consistent in the throws.

"And when our athletes began doing well in the 400m and the jumps in a big way, the throws went out of fashion. They were forgotten," says P.I. Babu, the Director and coach of the Kothamangalam Athletics Academy, another centre where the throws are being given special treatment.

Anitha Abraham, the U-20 junior National discus champion, who is also working on the hammer, Charles Edapatt and Justin are some of the throwers who are showing a lot of promise.

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