From a small town called Mundur to London, Kerala girl PU Chitra is the ‘Queen of the mile'

India made history when it won 29 medals in the recently concluded 22nd Asian Athletics Championship 2017 including 12 gold. And there was one athlete, a shy girl from a small village in Kerala, who stunned everyone with her performance.  

22-year-old PU Chitra won gold in the women’s 1,500m track event on July 7, 2017, clocking in at 4 minutes and 17.92 seconds.

Chitra hails from a small village called Mundur in Kerala’s Palakkad. One among four children of daily wage earning parents, Chitra was a shy girl right from a young age. She started ten years ago with her coach Sijin NS.  Sijin is the physical education teacher at Chitra’s alma mater Mundur Higher Secondary School. 

It was raining in Bhubaneshwar when the 1,500m track event was to start. But she did not let it stop her from winning the yellow metal, even surpassing her previous best by seven seconds.

"Of course, I did not expect gold. Before entering the track, all I wanted was a medal as usual. But in the final, with 250m to go for the finish, I got a sudden energy and surged ahead and finished first. It was like surreal, and it was great to be called Asian queen in the mile," said Chitra to The Times of India.

She credited her win to her trainer Sijin and was disappointed that she could not meet him as he did not have the official coach’s pass to be in the dedicated zone for coaches.

“For villagers like us, the sky is the limit. I’m proud of Chitra’s performance, and I’m more than glad that a physical education teacher like me could mould an athlete from a village with limited facilities for the world stage,” said Sijin.

Chitra will now join OP Jaisha and Preeja Sreedharan, both from Kerala, to represent India in 1,500m at the World Championships that will be held in London next month.

Congrats! PU Chitra wins gold in women's 1500m in Asian Athletics Chmshps; Hope she wins at London World Chmshps too https://t.co/uQvALyltUs

— Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (@kiranshaw) July 11, 2017

• PU Chitra
• Queen of the mile
• Kerala
• Asian Athletics Championship