CHENNAI: After good outings throughout the season, triple-jumper Abdulla Aboobacker is keen on improving his mark in the men’s triple jump final at the national inter-state athletics championships on Friday.
He began the season by equalling his personal best of 17.19m in the Open Jumps Competition in Bengaluru in March this year, following with gold at the Taiwan Athletics Open (16.21m) in June, and another gold at the World Athletics Continental Tour (16.08m) in Bhubaneswar last week .
This inter-state meet provides Indian athletes one last chance to qualify for the upcoming Worlds in Tokyo in September. Aboobacker remains one among a handful of athletes who may qualify via rankings. However, the 29-year-old is not going to settle with the current ranking. “I would like to put up a good performance here. A good jump will boost my confidence here before the meet at Tokyo,” he told reporters.
He is keen on making more memories here, after he won silver with a mark of 17.14m in the 2022 inter-state meet. “This is the most important event of the calendar year. The competition standards in the triple jump have increased and I hope that all the athletes do well,” he said.
While he may have won gold medals twice this season, he has crossed the 17-metre only once. He has set that aside and feels that he is primed to cross that mark. “My personal best jump then was top three in the world, and unfortunately I couldn’t replicate due to not having the optimal body conditions. But I feel I’m in my best shape and the conditions here are good,” he explained.
He will compete against Asiad silver medallist Praveen Chithravel, who has already qualified to the Worlds with a national record-equalling leap of 17.37m in the Federation Cup in Kochi in April.
Both currently train at the Inspire Institute of Sport, a high performance centre at Bellary, Karnataka. Although rivals on the jump pit, outside of it, Aboobacker describes their relationship as ‘Anna and Thambi’ (brothers).
“We have been training together for a few years. From 2017, we have been training and competing together. I am happy for his performance. Other people like Eldhose (Paul), Renjith (Maheshwari) and Arpinder (Singh) have been of immense help for me,” he said.
Come Friday, Aboobacker will vie for a golden jump. However, Chithravel, will also fancy his chances. Time will tell whether Aboobacker could pull a surprise.