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The Times of India
The Times of India
Sport
Biju Babu Cyriac | TNN

World U-20 Athletics Championships silver medallist Priya Mohan stares at injury layoff

BENGALURU: Silver medal winner in 400m mixed relay Priya H Mohan returned home on Thursday exhausted after gruelling competition at the World Athletics U-20 championships in Cali, Colombia, that saw the 19-year-old athlete run six races in six days.

“I ran two races in the 400m (heats and semis), two in the 4x400m women’s relay and two in mixed relay. Once I injured my sole, I ran the remaining two races after taping it,” Priya told TOI from a city hospital after an MRI following an advice from the team physio.

“We lost to gold medallists USA by 0.07 seconds in the final. It was a difficult time compared to last time (Nairobi, 2021) when we won the bronze, as we had no physio, no coach for the first two days of the competition when we had the heats and final,” Priya said.

“Also, there was no time to recover after the long journey (more than 24 hours). We had the heats the day after we landed in Cali. In the 400m heats, I clocked 52.56s but by the time I got into the semis, I had run three all-out races and my body didn’t recover,” she said, adding that it was the first time she competed without her coach Arjun Ajay.

According to sources, the Indian contingent that travelled to Cali struggled with the delays in visas and tickets.

“Only the team manager travelled with the first batch. The coaches and physios went with the second batch and were there only for the last four days of the meet. The contingent left in three different batches and a few had to fly from Delhi to Cali via Amsterdam, Panama City and Bogota,” they said.

Hurdler Unnathi Aiyappa also pointed out that it was difficult to compete the next day after landing. "I didn’t recover from the jet lag and I went out in the heats clocking 14.28 seconds in the 100m hurdles,” she said.

Besides, the relay silver, India also won a silver in men’s triple jump and women’s 400m through Selva P Thirumaran and Rupal.

Team manager C Latha told TOI that Indian athletes faced difficulties because of visa problems.

“The Federation blocked the tickets three times as we awaited the visas. A day before departure only half the contingent got the visas. The rest of the team, they said visa on arrival. Because of this confusion our coaches and support staff landed on the third day,” Latha said.

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