Expect plenty of eyes to be on Tushar Kanti Manna whenever he begins his track season next year. A couple of weeks ago, the 23-year-old clocked a personal best of 45.92 to win gold at the U-23 National Championships in Patna.
It was his second under the 46-second barrier this year– he’d already clocked 45.97 to win his first national gold medal at the Open Nationals in Bangalore in August.
His time at Patna was the second-fastest over the distance in India this year and the seventh-fastest ever run in a domestic competition, placing him 13th in the all-time list – headed by Muhammed Anas Yahiya (45.21). These numbers are impressive as they are but also more remarkable for someone who only seriously started running the 400m this year.
“When I started working with Tushar in the 400m, we set out two goals for ourselves. One was to win the national championships. The second was to compete at the Olympics. We’ve accomplished one goal. Now we will target the second,” says his coach Sahar Shah.
The future looks promising for Tushar, but it certainly did not when he decided to pursue athletics initially.
Growing up in Delhi, Tushar, who has roots in West Bengal’s West Medinipur district, ran the track for fun at school but could never really be serious about it. If he wasn’t at school, he would be working part-time at his father’s small jewellery kiosk at Karol Bagh market. His mind wasn’t in either of the two.
“I was a very active kid. It wasn’t that I couldn’t pick up things but I was just unable to focus on my studies,” he recalls.
While he tried to keep up with schoolwork, he struggled. Eventually, he failed his class nine exams, not once but twice.
“That was one of the lowest moments of my life. I had to leave my school and study for my class 10th exams through the Open school system. At that time, my parents were really worried about me and my future. They didn’t know what would happen to someone who was failing all the time,” he recalls.
Blessing in disguise
But studying through Open Schooling gave him something he didn’t have before – time. “I had a lot of free time because I didn’t have to go to school. I could either sit at my father’s shop and stare at the customers or I could seriously prepare for my athletics,” he recalls.
He chose the latter. Training under G. Krishan, a Physical Education teacher at the Delhi Tamil Education society school, he started out as a long jumper and sprinter. He was a naturally quick sprinter and powerful jumper with a personal best of 7.20m in the long jump and 21.7 in the 200m – the former of which won him gold at the North Zone junior championships.
As his athletics career developed, Tushar took part in selection trials to join the National Center of Excellence in Patiala in 2020. He originally joined as a sprinter before accidentally finding a path open to the 400m.
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“At the time I was in the camp, there was a trial to pick athletes who would get to go for an international exposure tour. At that point, I’d never gone abroad for anything and I really wanted to get that chance. So I tried all the events I could,” he says.
So, Tushar ran the 100m and 200m but also his first 400m race. There he would find out he had another talent.
“Everyone made bets on just how badly I would run the 400m because I had no experience and no one can just get up and run the 400m. But not only did I run the race I actually clocked a 49-second time. That got me the chance to go for my first exposure tour to South Africa,” he says.
Late start to 400m
Despite the early success in the 400m, it was only in 2023 that he began training seriously for it. By then, he had started working with Sahar Shah, a coach from Delhi who was only a few years senior to him.
“I first started working with him in the 100 and 200m. But I saw within a few months that while he didn’t have the acceleration he needed to be a top-class sprinter, he had very good speed endurance. I would make him run three splits of 150m and he would clock the same time in the last split as he did in the first,” Sahar says.
While he had basic speed and impressive speed endurance both Sahar and Tushar feel his strongest attribute is his mental fortitude.
“I’m someone who won’t give up no matter what. I take every session as a competition. I push myself a lot in training. Competition is a lot easier for me. If you ever come and watch me in training, you will likely see me lying nearly passed out on the track at the end of the session,” Tushar says.
While Tushar’s aptitude was in the quarter-mile, Sahar didn’t want him to shift right away. “I had done a study on 400m runners who are in the 44-second range and all of them have a certain basic speed. Speed is something that you can’t coach into an athlete at a later stage although you can coach speed endurance. So I wanted Tushar to build his speed at least until 2023,” he says.
It was only after Sahar was satisfied with how quick Tushar was that he finally transitioned him into the 400m late last year. Indeed at five feet nine inches and 76kg, Tushar still has a sprinter’s physique. Both he and his coach expect this to change in the coming months.
“I have a lot of hypertrophy weight. As per the event I’m in, I should be under 70kg,” Tushar says.
Target 44 seconds
When he cuts down, both Tushar and his coach are confident he will speed up as well. “I was expecting there to be one more competition in either the national games or the SAFF championships and I thought Tushar might clock 45.70 in that. But unfortunately, both competitions have been cancelled. But I am confident that Tushar will eventually be a sub-45-second runner,” says Sahar.
His improvement has already taken many by surprise. When Tushar started this season, he clocked 47.92 (for 7th place in the 400m nationals) and by the end of the season, he was running 45.92. It’s a progression that’s unfortunately not been as rewarding as he had hoped.
“Until last year, I only had medals at the state championships. This year, when I was applying for a sports quota job in the CISF, I wasn’t selected despite being the fastest runner because I didn’t have any national medal. At that time I felt bad but now I know that there are bigger things waiting for me. I’ve got a national gold but it’s not enough. I want to get faster. I want to go to the Asian Games in two years and I want to have the Indian record before that,” he says.
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