Rebel queen Adithya turns fury into gold in her last lap of Kerala school athletics

Last November, Adithya Aji was at the forefront of a gherao by a group of athletes protesting a controversial system to decide the Best Schools of the Kerala State School Athletics Championships.

Adithya was one of the leading voices of the protest at the Maharaja's College Ground in Kochi, which resulted in a pair of schools getting banned. The sprinter had every reason to be furious because she had accounted for 11 of the 44 points secured by Navamukunda HSS, Thirunavaya in Malappuram.

Yet when the organisers chose to include the dominant Sports Schools in the regular category, Navamukunda and Mar Basil, Kothamangalam, the two general institutions that were relegated in the points table chose to do a sit-in.

Fast-forward a year, Adithya turned up for the ongoing edition of the state meet as furious as ever. There isn't a reason to protest yet, but Adithya showcased her battle-readiness on the tracks, bettering her performances from last year. She has already changed the colour of her medal in Senior Girls 100-metre race from silver to gold and improved the timing in 100-metre hurdles from 14.21 seconds to 14.06 seconds to retain the first place. 

She will run the 200 metres final on Saturday to make it a brilliant triple gold in her last try in the State Schools meet.

Adithya will step into the territory of professional athletics next season when she finishes school. She understands she wouldn't dominate the tracks like she's done in the state schools in recent years.

"Looking back, I was so scared of hurdles. I was worried of getting hurt even during warm-ups," Adithya said. Gradually, she grew in confidence and now regards the hurdles as her main event, and does the other sprint events to better her timing. "Doing 100 and 200 has actually helped me do the hurdles well. You get the acceleration from training for 100 and you also gain from the entrance to the 200," Adithya said.

She's kept her options open, to either stick with her trainer, Mohammed Arshad or seek advanced training if a bigger academy offers a chance. "My aim is to become an international hurdler. To me, sports take priority over education, and my parents are quite supportive. I changed five schools between fifth standard and plus-two, all for sports," Adithya said proudly.

Motivation is not something Adithya lacks, but if at all she needed an extra push, she would check out YouTube videos of National Record-holder Jyothi Yarraji (12.78 seconds) and get instantly charged up.