“Man, a gold medal at my first Asian Games at 25… not a bad outing!”
Certainly not, more so after squash pro Abhay Singh wanted out in the sport a couple of years ago. But he kept at it. The reward? A couple of Asian Games medals.
Bothered by a string of poor throws this season, Annu Rani contemplated leaving javelin throw. But she kept at it. The reward? An Asian Games gold.
Troubled by frequent injuries over the last few years, Amoj Jacob, member of India’s 4×400m men’s relay quartet, toyed with pulling the plug on his running career. But he kept at it. The reward? An Asian Games gold.
As much as India’s best-ever medal show at the Asian Games is filled with stories of men and women of class and consistency and youngsters on the fast lane, it also features people seemingly thinking of having met a dead end in their sport careers, questioning themselves at the crossroads and yet, pushed by factors internal or external, choosing to ride on.
Abhay, the man who pulled off that nerve-wracking win in the last game against Pakistan for the squash men’s team gold, saw his social media go “crazy” with mentions and messages after the final. Not too long ago, though, he found himself in a lonely space.
In December 2021, after returning home from a couple of early exits in Scotland and Doha “playing horrifically” after the post-pandemic resumption of squash, Abhay sat with his parents for a frank chat.
“I thought, this is not how it was supposed to be when I say I love doing what I do,” Abhay, who turned pro at 16 declining offers from colleges in the US, said.
“I told my parents, ‘Maybe there’s space for me in the sport in the future, but I don’t see it right now’. So back from those four tournaments, I was ready to call it quits.”
Around then, he was informed about the selection trials for the Indian squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG). “So, I thought, let’s push for 12 more weeks and see. I did really well in those trials, got selected for the CWG and then everything just… well, the last 18 months have been great,” said Abhay, also a mixed doubles bronze medallist in Hangzhou.
The sight of the shore that keeps the ship sailing that bit longer — which, in Abhay’s case, was the CWG trials — could come from anywhere.
For Amoj, who competed in only six meets in 2021 and five in 2022 constantly pegged back by injuries, that eventually came through the 4x400m relay team’s Asian record-shattering and finals outing at the Budapest World Championships in August this year. Prior to that, having given up on 800m due to his physical breakdowns and little to feel buoyant about in the 400m (the relay team finished 6th at the 2022 CWG and 2nd at the 2023 Asian Championships), the 25-year-old thought it was better to stop.
“I stopped running 800m because I was not able to do the workout… It is tough to be a sprinter coming from long distance. We have to work a lot on technical issues, and that is why I also had many injuries. I also thought of quitting athletics,” Amoj said after the Worlds.
So did Annu this season, with seven 50m throws — her personal best is 63.82 — making her question whether javelin throw was worth continuing. Doubting her capabilities of living up to people’s expectations and the government’s investment on her training abroad, Annu “thought if I was doing so bad, I would quit”. The Asian Games would become her last shot to give “everything I had”. With a season best hurl of 62.92m, the 31-year-old got gold in return.
Dragged low by a state of lull deep into their careers — a mid-life crisis in sport, if you must — athletes yearn for that little reignition of drive.
For Asian Games singles bronze medallist shuttler HS Prannoy who wasn’t good enough then to go to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and knew it too, that was to press the reset button, change things up and rope in the right people for that.
For Saurav Ghosal, Abhay’s golden teammate who also won the singles silver, that was to not have a glittering career meet a gloomy end. It is what kept him going after the 2018 CWG where his early singles exit made him question whether he should, after all. “Every time in my career where I’ve felt very low after a very bad loss, to the point that I feel maybe I can’t go on now and this is it for me, what pulls me back is that I don’t want to end on a bad note,” he had told this paper.
For Abhay, that shot of motivation came through a change of coach. He began working with Paul Bell in Scotland in a “fresh environment”. “He made me feel a lot better about my game and showed me things that I could put together that could hurt a lot of players,” Abhay said.
And, back from the dead end, keep his squash career alive and kicking as an Asian Games gold medallist now.
