Get Set,Go!

Trailblazer P T Usha has enjoyed a dream run. Now, as a mentor to Gen Next, the sprint queen hopes to bring an Olympic medal in athletics to India.

- Srirekha Pillai

For years, Payyoli, a sleepy hamlet in north Kerala, has been synonymous with Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha. Even today, Payyoli Express, the pet name for the girl who came 1/100th of a second close to bagging an Olympic medal in athletics for India, is the sole claim to fame for this town, which is otherwise just a blip on the map. On the outdoor wall of Ushus, home to India’s most successful athlete, is a golden embossed figure of her on the track. A large showcase brims with innumerable medals amassed over an eventful career spanning two decades. Pictures on the wall—with American Olympic medallist Carl Lewis, Mother Teresa and Indira Gandhi among others—tell their own stories.

Usha has won more international medals than anybody else in the history of Indian sport. At the Asian Track and Field Meet in Jakarta in 1985, she won five gold medals to set the World Record for most gold medals by a female athlete in a single track meet. And she still holds the National Record for best timing in 200 m, a record she set during her comeback after marriage and childbirth at the age of 34.

The ‘Queen of Indian Track and Field’ was born to E P M Paithal and T V Lakshmi on 27 June 1964, as the fifth of six siblings—Seetha, Pushpa, Shobha, Suma and Pradeep. Discovered by coach and mentor O M Nambiar at the age of 12, she won maximum chocolates from him —an incentive for the best student! In a parallel, years later in Mumbai, another sporting legend in the making, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, collected maximum one rupee coins from his coach Ramakant Achrekar for batting well and retaining his wicket. What set these sporting icons apart is not just talent but their drive, determination, strength of character and steely resolve to stay put, whether on the track or the pitch.