The absence of meet records might have robbed the sheen off the athletics events at the State Games in Mysore last week, but by bagging the most number of gold in track and field events, SAI Dharwad's Akshaya S B showed that there is no dearth of talent in the State.

With an effort of 5.90 meters, the final year BA student of Karnatak Arts College, Dharwad, won the gold in long jump and later bagged the triple jump gold before anchoring her team to victory in the 4X100M relay.
"With the season just starting, I took this meet very seriously and the performance here has given me a big boost ahead of the Federation Cup in Bhopal later this month," said the 20-year-old who has been training under PC Jagannathan for the past five years.

"She is a proven performer at the university level. Everyone started taking her seriously after she won the bronze in long jump at the SGFI meet in Pune in 2004, which incidentally was her first National achievement," says Jagannathan.

Himself a former long-jumper, Jagannathan believes Akshaya, who won the long jump silver in the all-India inter-university meet in Chidambaram last month, will benefit if she is absorbed under SAI's Centre of Excellence programme. "That will give her a better exposure as she will get to train in other centres. She spends close to five hours for practice daily and is a quick learner and her approach to work is good. The kind of progress she has made makes me believe that she is capable of doing 6.35 in long jump and 13M in triple jump sooner or later."
Though long jump is her pet event, Akshaya, who won the triple jump gold and long jump bronze in the State Senior and Junior meet in Bangalore last year, is not a bad sprinter either as she proved while anchoring the relay team. "For the time being, I want to concentrate solely on jumps. My personal best in 100M is 12.5 seconds, which I don't think is that good. But I will keep running as it helps me in long jump."

Akshaya’s best performances came at the 57th Karnatak University inter-collegiate athletic meet in October last year, when she achieved 12.57s in triple jump and did 6.22M in long jump.

She might have failed to improve upon that mark in Mysore, but she sought to downplay that, instead choosing to focus on the positives. "Lack of records didn't come as a disappointment. I think, with this meet, my transformation from the university-level to the state-level is complete. I am eyeing the Nationals next."

With the Athletics Federation of India calendar for the year out, Akshaya has her plans well laid out. “Federation Cup will be the starting point. Then, the Youth Nationals and by the time the SAF Games comes next year, I should be ready to make it to the National squad."