World Para Athletics Grand Prix: Even after winning gold in the women’s 100m T35 event, 2024 Paralympics double bronze medallist Preethi Pal was disappointed after she couldn't deliver her personal best at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix here, having done that consistently for a month while practicing, and said she is already looking at ways to improve in the upcoming races.
The Indian para sprinter clocked 14.46 seconds to claim the top spot at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on the opening day of the competition on Wednesday. However, Preethi said fatigue towards the end of the race affected her execution.
“It was my 100m race. Towards the end I got exhausted and didn’t realise it at that moment. Later I watched the race again to see how it went,” Preethi told IANS.
While the gold medal added to her tally, the Indian athlete stressed that timing remains the more important benchmark, especially with bigger competitions ahead.
“In the Grand Prix, winning a gold medal is not the most important thing — what matters more is the timing. Because our real goal is to win gold at the Asian Games and the Paralympics,” she said.
After reviewing the race, Preethi acknowledged that there were technical mistakes she rarely makes during training.
“When I reviewed my race, and even others told me, I realised there were some mistakes. These things usually don’t happen during practice on the track, but it happened here. For the past one month I had been consistently delivering personal best timings, but that didn’t happen here,” she said.
Despite the disappointment, the sprinter is already focused on applying those lessons in her next event.
“I have understood the mistakes and the learnings, and I will apply them in tomorrow’s 200m race. I will try to give my best there. In the previous race I noticed that my drive phase became very poor, so I will try to improve that in the next race,” Preethi explained.
She also felt that stronger competition could have helped her push herself further during the race.
“I didn’t really get that level of competition here where someone could beat me. The others also gave their best, but if there had been another athlete close to me pushing from the side, maybe I could have pushed myself even more. Because of that I feel I couldn’t give my absolute maximum effort,” she said.
Looking ahead, Preethi believes competing in multiple international meets will help her identify areas of improvement as she prepares for major events like the Asian Games and the Paralympics
“I didn’t really get that level of competition here where someone could beat me. The others also gave their best, but if there had been another athlete close to me pushing from the side, maybe I could have pushed myself even more. Because of that I feel I couldn’t give my absolute maximum effort,” she said.
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“These experiences help us learn and also remove fear. By the time the Asian Games arrive, we will be more used to dealing with pressure,” she added.