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On comeback trail, Toor makes a good start to season
After battling injuries and crisis at home, Toor determined to record big throws this season.
Tajinderpal Singh Toor won gold with a new meet record of 19.95m in the shot put at the India Open Jumps and Throws competition at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) centre here on Wednesday.
The Asian record holder had a disappointing 2022 but has started the season well, winning the gold medal at the Asian Indoor championships in Astana on Feb 11 (19.49m). He further pushed himself in his second competition here. Toor started with a throw of 19.57m and recorded 19.95 in his 5th attempt.
“My goal this year is to improve on my national record (21.49m) and Asian Games record (20.75m) and qualify for the Paris Olympics. I was aiming to go beyond 20.40m here but there are some technical issues I need to sort out,” he said.
On a comeback trail after a lacklustre world championship and missing the Commonwealth Games, Toor is geared up for a new season. Though he has been dealing with crisis at home too.
“I have not been in a good mental space because my wife went through childbirth complications and had to go for an abortion. Before the Asian Championships, I had a bad time. My wife was sick and I was running to the hospital at midnight whenever she was having pain. She is better now and I need to get my focus back,” says Toor.
Though Toor has been dominating on the domestic front he has not been able to impress on the world stage since his breakout performance at the 2018 Asian Games. In the Tokyo Olympics, he failed to qualify for the final managing only one legal throw (19.99m). At the world last year, he retired from the qualification round without a single throw. He blames it on a groin injury during his training in the USA.
“The wrist injury has troubled me due to which I could not perform in Tokyo and finally I went through surgery and rehab. Before the worlds, I pulled my groin during training in the USA. I thought it would be okay but the moment I did my warm-up before the qualifying round, I could feel it badly. One more turn and I could have injured myself badly. So, I decided to pull out,” said Toor.
On the positive side, Toor and 25-year-old Karanveer Singh have been pushing each other. At the IIS high performance centre, while Toor won gold Singh took the silver with a throw of 19.54m.
In Astana, Singh had grabbed silver behind Toor with 19.37m. Both Toor and Singh have breached the qualification standard for the Asian Games (19m). Like Toor, Singh is also left-handed. Singh's personal best was 20.10m last year.
“It has been a very positive start to the season, winning a medal at the Asian Championships which is the first big international medal for me was big. Also, the body is still to open up because we are coming from off-season. I know I can do much better and will be targeting 20.50m- 21m. Though we have met the Asian Games standard, I want to go there with better performance and the National Inter-State meet in July which will be the trials, will be an important one,” says Singh.
“It helps when you have a competitor and mentor like him (Tajinderpal). I learn from him and we also push each other in competitions. When I threw 20m, he crossed 21m. He is a big motivation,” says Singh, who also follows world and Olympic champion Ryan Crouser closely.
Crouser recently shattered the world record by throwing 23.37m. “Though every thrower is technically different, I watch Crouser’s interviews, some technical sessions on YouTube. I discuss with my coach and see if there is anything we can learn and include in our training regimen,” he says.
