Reports | Jinson Johnson splits up with coach, likely to move to USA

07/24/2019

After splitting with his two-year-old coach Jasvinder Singh Bhatia, star sprinter Jinson Johnson is eyeing to shift to Colorado, USA, to better his chances of qualifying in the Olympics. The speedster set the national record last month in Netherlands by creaking his previous one in CWG Goal Coast.

With the Olympics just a year to go, Johnson would definitely be one of India’s potential medal contenders. And keeping an eye on the same, the Jakarta Asian Games 1500m champion is planning to shift to Colorado Springs by next month.

“I want to achieve the Olympic qualification time of 3:35.00 sec and that is not possible if I continue to train at the national camp in Bengaluru,” said Johnson, reported HT.

Johnson came to prominence after his brilliant record-breaking performances in 800m and 1500m last year. This year too hasn’t been very bad, although the 28-year-old fell short of the Doha World Championships qualifying time of 3:36.00 sec, he created a national record of 3:37.62 sec at the Next Generation Meet in the Dutch city of Nijmegen in June, breaking his previous best of 3:37.86 sec at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

He had suffered a calf injury in April during the 800m event at the Doha Asian Championships that forced him to pull out of the 1500m race. However, his timing would further need improving and the Kerala athlete, who is also supported by the government’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme, has been planning to up his game with high-altitude training (6000 feet) at the American Distance Project in Colorado Springs under Scott Simmons.

“The facilities there are better, it will help me slice two seconds in 1500m and qualify for the Olympics,” he added.

Johnson has already applied for the US visa earlier this week and has been reported to start training from next month. “My training programme will depend on how quickly I get the visa. If I go to Colorado Springs, I will not be able to compete in the August 27-30 Inter-state Senior National Championships in Lucknow, which is the qualification event for the World Championships,” he said.

“I’m not competing in 800m at the international level as it is very tough to clip even a fraction of a second to reach the next level.”

In June last year, Johnson had clocked 1:45.65 sec in Guwahati to break Sriram Singh’s four-decade-old record of 1:45.77 sec that was set in the 1976 Olympics. In 2016, despite Johnson qualifying for the Rio Olympics with a timing 1:45.98 sec, he had failed to go beyond the first round and the 2020 Olympic’s qualifying mark 1:45.20 sec is his last real chance.

“Unlike 1500m, it’s difficult to recover lost ground in a two-lap race,” he concluded.