Jinson Johnson
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A profile
The Times of India, August 2, 2016
Vijesh MV
Army man Jinson's discipline pays off
While India's other sporting stars are busy sharing their training pictures or their arrival pictures from Rio, Jinson kissed goodbye to timeconsuming social media activities to accomplish Olympic qualification.
His focus paid dividends as he sealed his berth at the Indian Grand Prix held at Sri Kanteerava stadium in Bengaluru when he achieved a personal best of 1:45:98s in the men's 800m.
The man's athletic journey is quite remarkable. The boy from Chakkittapara, Kozhikode did not taste any major suc cess till Class XI.
He was an average athlete at St George's HSS, Kulathuvayal, before he surprised many by clinching gold in both 800m and 1500m in the 2008 junior athletics. He won the 1500m gold in the junior national meet in Kolkata.
KM Peter, a former university level athlete who runs an athletic academy in Kulathuvayal, was the man behind Jinson's dramatic rise. “I saw him at a district-level school meet in Vakayad and he didn't impress me. He was like any other athlete when he came to practice under me in 2007.
“But I admired his hard work and dedication. This forced me to focus more on him. He started winning more races and never looked back,“ said Peter. Jinson moved to Kerala Sports Council's sports hostel at Kottay am and joined Baselius College to pursue his graduation.He spent just one year under coach George Emmanuel before joining the army in 2009.“I owe my success to army life. It has changed me in many ways, “ says Jinson.
Jinson started his Olym pic quest four years ago, reveals his current coach Mohammed Kunhi who has been training the athlete since 2011.“We started our preparation for Rio in 2012 itself. Jinson went through a tough training schedule and it has brought us great results.“
