THRISSUR: The recent turmoil in Turkey during the World School Athletic meet held there adversely affected the performance of athletes, said national junior school high jump champion K.S. Ananthu. Speaking to DC, Ananthu, who is presently a Plus One student at Sree Krishna HSS in Guruvyaur, said that though he holds the national junior school record of 2.08 m, he could only clear 1.96m at Turkey. The jump fetched Ananthu bronze in the event and the gold medal winner cleared 1.99m
“Even though we were safe after the failed attempt for a military coup in Turkey, the atmosphere was so tense and I couldn’t perform to the best of my ability,” he added. Ananthu hit the limelight in 2014 by breaking the sub-junior record at the National School Athletic Meet held in Ranchi by jumping 1.89 m and in January 2016, he became the junior school champion by setting a height of 2.08 m.
“Besides the turmoil, the athletes could not properly acclimatise in Turkey and had issues, especially with the food. I learnt from them as they returned to Kerala on Friday that as they could not eat Turkish food, most of them were taking cornflakes or oats,” coach of Ananthu at Sree Krishna School C.M. Nelson said.
It would have been of great help if the authorities had taken the athletes to the host country at least a week before the event rather than reaching the venue a couple of days before the event, he added. From Kerala P.N. Ajith from Palakkad won silver in 3000m race, Abhishek Mathew from Kothamangalam got silver in 2000m medley relay and Nivya Antony won a medal in pole vault.
