<p>Athletes achieving a track double - 100m & 200m, 800m & 1,500m or 5,000m & 10,000m -- isn’t unheard of even if not frequent. A field double, however, has remained a rarity. </p>.<p>This is perhaps the reason why congratulatory messages and phone calls for interviews haven’t stopped coming Aishwarya Babu’s way even a week after she topped the podium in both triple jump and long jump at the Inter-State Athletics meet in Chennai. </p>.<p>“My focus has always been triple jump. I went in with an aim to set a new NR in it. But I surprised myself in the long jump event,” Aishwarya told DH. </p>.<p>Over a span of three days, the Bengaluru girl eclipsed Mayooka Johny’s 11-year-old national record (14.11m) in triple jump, became only the second Indian woman (after Anju Bobby George) to cross 6.70 metres in long jump en route two gold medals and qualifying for the Commonwealth Games in both events. </p>.<p>The 25-year-old leaped 6.73m during the long jump qualification stage before setting a new mark of 14.14m in the triple jump the following day. </p>.<p>“I started off as a sprinter but switched to jumps later,” added the Railways employee who was spotted by Olympian and former heptathlete Pramila Aiyappa before her husband and coach BP Aiyappa took Aishwarya under his wings. </p>.<p>“I began training her after she went through an ACL surgery. The pandemic break worked in our favour as it became her rehab/ recovery time,” said Aiyappa. “She is tremendously explosive and has good speed even though she is short. Strength was her only weak link,” he pointed out. </p>.<p>After two years of extensive work on building strength, there was no stopping a much stronger Aishwarya as she won both the horizontal jump events for the second time within a year. </p>.<p>Aishwarya is set to feature in triple and long jump at the CWG in Birmingham beginning next month, but her coach insists that once the quadrennial bash ends they will decide on specialising in just one of them.</p>.<p>Though they fall under the same jumping category, the two are technically different making it difficult for a single athlete to perform at a high level in the long run, explained Aiyappa. </p>.<p>“The three phases (hop, skip, jump) in triple jump make it comparatively tougher than the one phase (jump) long jump. For longevity and to keep her injury-free, we will mostly make her a pure long jumper. But all that is only after the CWG where she has a good chance of winning a medal,” said Aiyappa.</p>
<p>Athletes achieving a track double - 100m & 200m, 800m & 1,500m or 5,000m & 10,000m -- isn’t unheard of even if not frequent. A field double, however, has remained a rarity. </p>.<p>This is perhaps the reason why congratulatory messages and phone calls for interviews haven’t stopped coming Aishwarya Babu’s way even a week after she topped the podium in both triple jump and long jump at the Inter-State Athletics meet in Chennai. </p>.<p>“My focus has always been triple jump. I went in with an aim to set a new NR in it. But I surprised myself in the long jump event,” Aishwarya told DH. </p>.<p>Over a span of three days, the Bengaluru girl eclipsed Mayooka Johny’s 11-year-old national record (14.11m) in triple jump, became only the second Indian woman (after Anju Bobby George) to cross 6.70 metres in long jump en route two gold medals and qualifying for the Commonwealth Games in both events. </p>.<p>The 25-year-old leaped 6.73m during the long jump qualification stage before setting a new mark of 14.14m in the triple jump the following day. </p>.<p>“I started off as a sprinter but switched to jumps later,” added the Railways employee who was spotted by Olympian and former heptathlete Pramila Aiyappa before her husband and coach BP Aiyappa took Aishwarya under his wings. </p>.<p>“I began training her after she went through an ACL surgery. The pandemic break worked in our favour as it became her rehab/ recovery time,” said Aiyappa. “She is tremendously explosive and has good speed even though she is short. Strength was her only weak link,” he pointed out. </p>.<p>After two years of extensive work on building strength, there was no stopping a much stronger Aishwarya as she won both the horizontal jump events for the second time within a year. </p>.<p>Aishwarya is set to feature in triple and long jump at the CWG in Birmingham beginning next month, but her coach insists that once the quadrennial bash ends they will decide on specialising in just one of them.</p>.<p>Though they fall under the same jumping category, the two are technically different making it difficult for a single athlete to perform at a high level in the long run, explained Aiyappa. </p>.<p>“The three phases (hop, skip, jump) in triple jump make it comparatively tougher than the one phase (jump) long jump. For longevity and to keep her injury-free, we will mostly make her a pure long jumper. But all that is only after the CWG where she has a good chance of winning a medal,” said Aiyappa.</p>
