Missing an Asian Games medal, finding new belief: the story of triple jumper Asha Ilango

Triple jumper Asha Ilango missed the Asian Games bronze medal by a whisker. She was tied with Chinese athlete Li Yi at 13.83m but the latter reached the podium because her second-best jump was better.

While Asha couldn’t win a medal, she won something much more important; the trust of her family and the self-belief she had lost last year after an ankle injury.

“I had given up on the sport. I wanted to go to NIS Patiala for a coaching diploma and stop doing the triple jump,” Asha told The Indian Express on the sidelines of the National Open Athletics Championships.

Asha, who has been competing in triple jump for a decade, was frustrated as she was unable to breach the 13m mark. “It felt like nothing was happening. I didn’t have much resources to train, and there was no technique and no rhythm to my jumps. I would just sprint, hop twice and then jump.”

After lingering around the 12.8m mark for a long time, Asha contemplated leaving the sport after stress fractures in both ankles.

“My family was suggesting that I should get married as I had turned 27. I also thought that nothing was happening. I didn’t even have a national medal to show for my efforts. I didn’t have sponsors or anything, so what was I doing?” Asha recalled. “But when I was looking at options for a diploma in coaching, a friend asked me to take a risk and give one more year to training and competing.”

A new start

That is when Asha met her current coach Nalvin Raja, a former sprinter who is an NIS-certified coach training kids in Madurai.

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“When Asha came to train under me, she was very raw in terms of technique. We worked on everything. From the very basics of running to the track to understanding how to generate rhythm, she learnt everything,” Nalvin said.

Tamil Nadu’s Asha Ilango in action at the National Open Athletics Championships. (AFI)

As Asha got specialised training, things started to pick up for her, boosting her confidence. After training non-stop with Nalvin for seven months, Asha opened her season with a personal best of 13.52m at the Indian Athletics Series in Chennai on May 10. A month later, she bettered it to 13.57m in Pune.

But her best moment came at the Inter-State National Championships in Bhubaneswar where she jumped 13.89m to record the third-best jump in Indian history, booked her berth for the Asian Games, and also won her first major national medal.

“I think the Inter-State was the game changer for me. My jump of 13.89m really gave me the confidence that I can go further and jump 14m,” said Asha.

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On Thursday at the National Open Championships, Asha equalled her personal best and consistently jumped over 13.5m mark.

Asiad experience

For Asha, who had never travelled abroad for any international competition, the Asian Games was more than just a tournament. It was her chance to see for herself everything she had witnessed only on television.

“I had never thought about this moment. Not after I had the ankle injury. I had only seen such an environment on TV. When I was ready to jump, the whole crowd was backing me and I had goosebumps,” quipped Asha.

Despite missing a medal, the Asian Games performance has given a new boost to Asha’s career.

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“I’m thankful to everyone, and especially my coach. Now nobody is asking me to retire or get married. Everybody wants me to continue in the sport. The Asian Games showed everyone that I belong at the elite level,” she said.

According to her coach, it’s the mindset that has kept Asha going.

“Even when she is not jumping her best, her mindset to bounce back is elite. All she needed was a bit of guidance and our chemistry as a coach and an athlete has really clicked resulting in those big jumps,” said Nalvin.

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Asha is ending her 2026 season, her best ever, by equalling her personal best and setting her eyes on a national record next year.

“I am very close to the national record. Jumping 14m doesn’t look like a big task to me now,” she laughed.

In the space of one year, the athlete who wanted to quit and take up coaching has found a new life and a new goal in her career.