Injuries did not stop him from bagging the gold

The Coimbatore athlete, who was doing well in the first seven events of decathlon was assaulted by a fellow contestant from Delhi before pole vault, the eighth of the ten events in decathlon. He had a good run in the first seven events. Finishing 100 metres in 11.54 seconds he came second. He came first in long jump clearing 7.05 metres, first in high clearing at 2.02 metres and first in 110 metres hurdles in 14.84 seconds. He was at his personal best in all these events. He suffered deep cut on his left neck, ear and hip after he was kicked by another player, before pole vault. 

“But I was determined to give my best shot and came first with a personal best clearing 3.6 meters,” he told DTNext. The first year B.A. Tamil student scored 6,338 points to bag the gold medal in the U-20 boy’s category. 

Vivekandhan was interested in sports as a boy. But the school where he studied till seventh allowed only students good at studies to participate in sports. Convinced with his interest in athletics his parents changed his school. He participated in district and zonal meets but could not bag a medal for the next three years. “I tried various athletic events but could not shine in any of them. Two years ago I gave a try to decathlon as it was a mixture of most of the events I have tried. I won the bronze in the senior state championship,” he said and added that from then on he won quite a few state, zonal, a couple of national and an international medals. 

Last year he represented India in the World Schools Championship in China and won the bronze medal in long jump. This year a student from Tamil Nadu was part of the relay team that won the silver medal in the same championship at Turkey. “The Tamil Nadu Government gave her a cash prize of Rs. 25 lakh. But I did not get this support despite winning an individual event,” he sadly said. 

Stating that he is good at high jump and long jump the teenager who stands 185 cms tall wants to concentrate in them and win the gold for the country in the Olympics. “I want to train youth from poor families and shape them into good athletes,” he said. 

Vivekandhan has been able to perform so well by just having rice and rasam almost thrice a day. “With support from the government and sponsors for proper diet he will be able to scale to great heights and win laurels for the country,” his father S. Nagaraj who does menial jobs confidently said.

The Tamil Nadu team won the golf in five events on the fourth day here. The youth won gold in three individual and two team events. Eight other silver and bronze medals were won by the home team on Sunday. V Loganayaki won the gold in the U-20 girls 400 metres hurdles while T Santhosh stood first in the U-20 mens 400 metres hurdles. U Gokulnath won the gold in the U-14 boys pole vault. In the team events, Tamil Nadu’s U-20 girls won the 4x 100 metres relay.