Daily-wage labourers' daughter smashes World Para 400 metres record

HYDERABAD: The daughter of daily-wage labourers, who did not even have Rs 200 to buy a bus ticket to travel to Hyderabad for training until a few of years ago, smashed the world record at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan, on Monday. Deepthi Jeevanji from Kalleda in Warangal won the women's 400 metres T20 category gold in 55.07 seconds, breaking the record set by Breanna Clark of the US (55.12 seconds) at the last edition of the Worlds in Paris in 2023.

Deepthi started the race on a strong note and dominated the first 200 metres. But Clark made good ground towards the end before Deepthi made one final push to victory in the last 5 metres. Turkey's Aysel Onder finished second in 55.19 seconds while Lizanshela Angulo of Ecuador was third in 56.68 seconds. T20 is a classification for disabled athletes in track and jump events. It broadly covers athletes with intellectual disabilities.

Deepthi was the beneficiary of the Gopichand-Mytrah foundation, an athletics talent search programme run by coach Pullela Gopichand.

Deepthi's parents couldn't pay bus fare to Hyd
Along with Dronacharya award recipient and athletics coach Nagpuri Ramesh, Gopi and Mytrah foundation have been scouting talented youngsters from poor backgrounds and helping them become professional athletes.

At one of the local athletics meets in 2016, the foundation's talent scout noticed Deepthi and informed Ramesh and Gopichand. The foundation then called up the parents and asked them to send Deepthi to the Gopichand Academy where many athletes, including Dutee Chand, Agasara Nandini and others were training. But Deepthi's parents told them they did not have the money to buy a bus ticket from Warangal to Hyderabad. Ramesh then told the parents to put her on a bus and spoke to the conductor, promising him to pay the ticket fare once she reached Hyderabad.

On her arrival, she was monitored by the staff and Gopichand identified that she had learning difficulties. He advised Ramesh to put her in the intellectually impaired category. Deepthi did not disappoint them and won the 400 metres gold at the Hangzhou Para Asian Games in China last year. She is also part of the SAI-STC day boarding scheme.

"Deepthi endured a tough childhood. Her parents were taunted by the villagers for having a child with learning difficulties. They were always worried about her, but now not only has she made them proud, she has also made the entire nation proud," Ramesh said. "We were shocked when her parents told us that they did not have a couple of hundred rupees to send her to Hyderabad. The most difficult part was to convince them to put her on a bus."

"On Gopichand's advice, we took her to the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities and after tests they certified her as mentally impaired. That helped her to be eligible for para meets. Getting an international license was another big task and the foundation had to spend Rs 3 lakh for the purpose," Ramesh said.


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