PU Chitra from Kerala left everyone inspired with her outstanding performance.
As the stopwatch hit 4 minutes & 17.92 seconds, 22-year-old PU Chitra struck gold for the women’s 1,500m track event on Friday.
Twenty-two-year-old PU Chitra braved the rain and surpassed all expectations to clinch gold in women’s 1500m stopping the clock at 4.17.92 seconds.
“Of course, I did not expect gold. My personal time before this was around 4 minutes 24 seconds, which I did last year. This time I won the Federation Cup gold to make it to the national squad. Before entering the track, all I wanted was a medal as usual,” she told TOI.
Her superlative show in Kalinga Stadium has earned Chitra the tag, ‘queen of Asia in the mile’.
Chitra has been trained by Sijin, a physical education teacher at her alma mater Mundur HSS. And the coach is ecstatic after her ward’s exploits in Bhubaneswar. “For villagers like us, sky is the limit.
I’m proud of Chitra’s performance and I’m more than glad that a physical education teacher like me could mould an athlete from a village with limited facilities to the world stage,” the proud mentor said.
