Somewhere around the 17-kilometer mark in the 2018 Delhi half marathon, Abhishek Pal thought he could break out from the pack and push for a victory. Three Indians were running neck-to-neck and Avinash Sable was leading the pack before the final five kilometres.

For Pal, who finished eighth among Indians last year at the same event, a win on Sunday would mark a new beginning in his career. So he decided to make the final push and broke away from the pack to finish the race with a time of 1:04.13, good enough to earn him a gold medal among Indian runners. Ethiopia’s Andamlak Belihu won the elite runners race with a personal best timing of 59.17.

“Last year I was confident but finished eighth [among Indians],” Pal said. “That was my first half marathon but when I came here, I wanted to win the gold medal. I know there were Olympians in the field but that only gave me motivation. Gopi [Thonakal] is a senior and I followed them for the major part of the race to keep myself in the hunt.”

It was like Gopi and Sable worked as pace-setters for him and as soon as he saw the final kilometre milestone, he made a dash for it. Gopi lagged behind in third as he failed to make a sprint in the final 200 meters. Sable took the second position with a timing of 1:04:14. “Preparation was not the best because I was working without a specialist coach,” Sable said after the race.

For Pal, this race was not about preparation or setting records. All he wanted to do was to prove to himself that he belongs in the top class of Indian long-distance runners. Having won the silver medal in the 10,000 meters at the Open Nationals recently, he wanted to build on that result.

“I have won a lot of silver medals, so I was waiting for a big gold medal and this is one of the top medals for me.” Pal said. “Long-distance running for me was 5,000 metres, 10,000 metres, but now I have made a mark in half marathon. Slowly I’ll move to full marathon and try to be the top Indian in long-distance running.”

Family of runners

Running is not new to Pal. Since his school days in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, he has seen his siblings train. His sister Phoolan and bother Rahul are also national-level runners. Running, Pal said, runs in the family.

“We are seven siblings and five are into long-distance running,” he said. “Our uncle Kamlesh has taken it upon himself to train us and I began six years ago under him. One of my sisters won two silver medals at the Khelo India Games. So it’s in our family. We also sold some land to get ourselves the gears and facilities.”

Pal began running at the local ground in Amethi and later moved to Bengaluru to train under his brother who is in the Army. After a year, he was selected in the Bhopal National Academy and has been honing his skills there since then. After promising results at the junior nationals, he continued to improve his record at the senior level.

Before the Asian Games, Pal was all set to be one of the athletes on the flight to Jakarta but his ambitions were cut short when he had a health concern. A vein-blockage in his stomach forced him to stop training and he moved to Kerala for treatment.

“In the last six years, I have just made sure I train everyday,” he said. “I wanted to be at the Asian Games but that stomach problem became worse. So I decided to move to Kerala for ayurvedic treatment and now I am back to full fitness. During the race, I had a small stomach problem which is why the last five kilometres we ran slow,” he added.

The slow race stole his chance to break Deep Chand’s national record of 1:04.00, which he has been eyeing for long. However, he wants to view this race as an improvement. “We have farms back in the village but I don’t work there; I have no interest,” he said. “My uncle just wants us to keep improving and this result is one of the biggest marker of my improvement.”

Gopi, senior to Pal and favourite before the race, also praised the youngster for his performance but said that he has a lot of scope for improvement. “It’s great to see him run and win a medal,” Gopi said. “He is a junior for me but this result will help him a lot. There is a scope for improvement so he can achieve better results.”

Although his mind is focused on improving his timing, Pal said it’s now time to train for the track events before the next marathon season begins. “For now I will only train for track because that is where I have to win medals. Marathon can wait for some time now,” he said.