India hurdler Abraham may be a pocket-sized athlete, but he is a dynamo on the tracks... he proved just that by clinching gold yesterday

India hurdler Joseph Abraham wins gold

India hurdler Abraham may be a pocket-sized athlete, but he is a dynamo on the tracks... he proved just that by clinching gold yesterday

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Joseph Abraham is definitely not built like an athlete. At just a little over 5 ft, he was the shortest in the line-up of the remaining seven taller and more accomplished runners in the men's 400m hurdles final of the Asian Games yesterday.

Joseph Abraham is all smiles after becoming the first Indian male athlete to win a gold medal at the Asian Games. pic/AFP

The top four finishers of the 400m men's hurdles at the last Asian Games in Doha were alongside Abraham, dwarfing him with their height that ranged from 5ft 6inches to 6 ft 5 inches. Japan's Kenji Narisako, China's Yan Meng, Japan's Naohiro Kawakita and Kazakhstan's Yevgeniy Meleshenko had finished in that order exactly four years ago, with Abraham nowhere near them then.

However he not only went above them all, but did so in fine fashion leading the race almost from the half-way mark to the finish. He even created history in the bargain by becoming the first men's athletic gold medallist in the Asian Games.

While talking to MiD DAY about beingu00a0 the shortest in yesterday's line-up, the 29-year-old Kottayam athlete said: "Not only in this line-up, I'm the shortest in Asia in the event. But it doesn't matter. World No 1 400m hurdler Bershawn Jackson too is of the same height as me, so height is no problem," he said. Just for the record, American Bershawn Jackson is a good 5ft 8in while Joseph looks barely 5ft 4in, but that's not what mattered last night.

Also, the fact that Japan's defending champion Narisako was in the line-up, didn't matter to Abraham. "I've been watching and running alongside him for sometime now. Even in last year's Asian Championships I was not too far behind him. And then after I ran my heat and I saw him running his heat, I was even more confident of beating him in the final. I was sure I'd win some medal, but my coach Rajinder Singh told me 'if you have to get a medal then let it be gold'," said Abraham, who clocked his season's best of 49.96 to clinch gold.

A thigh injury had forced Abraham to miss the Beijing Olympics, but London Games is all that's on his mind right now. "I should not be over-confident. I must now focus on the 2012 London Olympics," he said.

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