HANGZHOU: Five years ago, he dominated the track at the Jakarta Asian Games winning a gold and silver but defending men's 1500m champion Jinson Johnson came into the 19th edition after a long battle with Covid-19 that had also dashed his hopes to compete in the Tokyo Games.
"I was down with a severe attack of Covid-19 in April 2021. I went back home from the camp and thus I missed the Tokyo Olympics. I had missed the qualification before the pandemic by a whisker and after the lockdown it was impossible to make the cut," Johnson, who also missed the last Commonwealth Games with injury, recalled to TOI. "Once I left the camp my workouts went haywire. My fitness suffered and my body weight increased. It was during this period that people started saying that I had stopped competing."
A valuable bronze
"This medal here at the Asian Games is my comeback after my career got derailed with Covid-19. In the final, I was determined to do well. As per the start list ranking, I would have finished eighth. So from there I finished third and that's a matter of pride. I'm very happy with this bronze medal," the Army JCO said.
"I had confidence in myself. I also had full support from my wife and parents and the group of coaches in the camp including Dr Kalyan Chaudhary and foreign coach Scott Simmons."
"If I had failed to do well here and posted a bad time without winning a medal, I would have quit the sport. But now this gives me the confidence to work hard to reach the next stage," said Johnson who clocked 3:39.74s.
After the Federation Cup, Johnson took part in two competitions in the USA, clocking 3:42 plus time in Los Angeles and a 3:40 plus in Portland.
"At the Asian Championships in Bangkok, I strained my hamstring during a workout before the race. I took some treatment from the physios and went for the race. But I was feeling pain on each step and posted my worst time of 3:46.9s to finish 10th. I was really down after that. But I did good rehab for two months and did a 3:39.32 at the fifth GP in Chandigarh. It gave me a lot of confidence for the Asian Games," he said.
The talented runner, who broke the long standing records of Sriram Singh in men's 800m and Bahadur Prasad in 1500m, feels he needs to improve his world ranking to make the Paris cut. The qualification mark is a stiff 3:33.50s.
