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When Amit Khatri won the men’s 10km silver medal at the World Athletics U20 Championships on Saturday, his coach attributed it to hard work and training at the high altitudes of the Kumaon hills.
Sunkiya, a small village nestled in those hills, is home to international race walker and army man Chandan Singh, coach and mentor to Khatri. And it has become a home away from home for the teenage race walker from Haryana.
The night before the event, the coach had discussed plans to tackle the opposition during Saturday’s race. He said:
“We had worked out the race pace for each lap of the 10km race walk. Amit was on course for a gold medal, but he misjudged the pace of his nearest rival in the last two laps and settled for silver.”
Singh said the 17-year-old wanted to break off from Kenya’s Heristone Wanyonyi, the eventual winner in the last three laps of the 10km race. Explaining how the move proved costly, he said:
“Since it was Amit’s first international event, the inexperienced judging opponents in the closing stage of the race proved costly.”
Nonetheless, Singh is satisfied with Amit Khatri's silver medal, given the pandemic-induced difficulties of training over the last four months.
During lockdown in April this year, Singh advised Amit Khatri to train in Sunkiya as most of the sports facilities in the north were out of bounds for athletes due to pandemic. Recalling the situation, the coach said:
“Amit went to Dehradun, but the synthetic eight-lane track was closed due to pandemic. Then I told him to go to my village and train.”
Between April and June, Amit Khatri trained at an elevation of over 2000m in the Kumaon hills. It helped him prepare for Nairobi’s high altitude and local weather conditions.
In preparation for the Federation Cup junior athletics meet scheduled for the last week of July in Sangrur, Khatri moved back to his village in Rohtak. Since there was no track available, he trained in the fields and sometimes, along the roadside. Singh said:
“We didn’t miss training during the pandemic. It was a big advantage. During the Federation Cup junior athletics meet, Amit won the 10km race walk event and comfortably qualified for the Nairobi’s World Athletics U20 Championships.”
The seed of a podium finish at Nairobi’s World Athletics U20 Championships was sown four summers ago. In 2017, when Chandan was at a national camp in Patiala, Amit Khatri, who had come over from Rohtak to pursue sports and was staying in rented accommodation, approached him for tips on race walking.
Recalling Amit Khatri's energy and enthusiasm to learn, Singh said:
“I was eager to teach and he was enthusiastic to learn. Within a span of two months, Amit was flawless in race walking. I was surprised how fast he grasped what I teach him.”
Since 2017, the teacher-student relationship has blossomed. Amit Khatri has made steady progress, adding three age-group records under his belt, including the U20 national record.
In 2018, when the national camp shifted from Patiala to Bengaluru, Amit Khatri also decided to shift his training base. Commenting on the athlete's discipline, Singh said:
'It's been over four years Amit has been training with me. He is a highly disciplined student. Perhaps this could be one of the reasons he has been performing exceptionally well.”
The teacher and student have planned out a future course of action. Holding out hope that Amit Khatri's World Athletics U20 silver medal will help him get a job or financial incentive from Haryana state government, Singh said:
“With the support of his parents, Amit has reached out thus far. To continue to make good progress in the future ample support is a must for the teenager.”
