There were a lot of expectations from Tintu Luka
since she broke Shiny Wilson’s 15-year-old 800m national record at the IAAF
Continental Cup in 2010 but these expectations faded as she struggled in major
championships. Critics started to raise questions on her skill as Tintu could
not win an individual gold in any of the major athletics championships. But Tintu responded to her critics in the
best way by winning her first individual gold in the 800m in the Asian
Athletics Championships in Wuhan,China.
The athlete had no proper warm-up session before the
race due to heavy rain at the Wuhan Sports Center but Tintu overcame the rains
and the wet track to win gold with an impressive timing of 2.01.53s. Even her
rivals’ coaches congratulated her on winning in horrible running conditions.
The wet track left all other runners struggling. The coach Usha said Tintu
could have finished the race earlier if conditions were normal. Though Tintu was
.53 seconds short of 2:01:00s which is the IAAF entry standards of Rio Olympics
she was happy by winning the gold.
She said she was expecting a tough contest but there
was no competition at all. She added she planned to stay in lead from start to
end and she managed it easily. The 26-year-old secures a place for the Beijing
World Championships in August with this gold. Coach Usha is not upset on
missing the Olympic place in Wuhan because she is expecting much more dominant
performance from her player in Beijing. She said they are very hopeful Tintu
can do well in the World Championship because they have been training hard and
she is fit to go.
