Mumbai: Visually-impaired triathele attempts the full Ironman Triathlon

The distance we had to cover in Mumbai off Silver Beach was 5 km Now we can do that distance easily in four hours And that was our strategyrdquo says Omkar Jokar 26 speaking of the swimathon he participated in in February 2021 along with partner Niket DalalDalal 38 is visually impaired having lost his eyesight entirely at the age of five to glaucoma And so participating in the swimathon with Jokar means that the two are tethered together with Jokar acting as the guiding partnerldquoBut the actual distance of the swim ended up being 65 km So our pacing strategy had to change Just as we thought we were nearing the end of the swim we were told that we had to do two more loops Wersquod lost time sticking to our original planrdquo says Jokar Being tethered and acting as one person when you are in fact two individuals comes with its own challenges For instance Jokar says he can swim faster with freestyle but Dalal is more comfortable with the breaststroke Had they adopted different strokes they would have have got entangled in the tether And so strategymdashafterall they had to complete the swim in the designated four hoursmdashrequired quick last minute thinking While Jokar moved to freestyle Dalal opted for a modified version of the breaststroke which allowed him to pull in the waterThey completed their swim in timeThe CoMotion bike that Dalal bought cost him Rs 12 lakh and requires special permission before being shipped to a country for an event Dalalrsquos coach Chaitanya Velhal says that even finding spare parts of the US cycle poses difficultiesJokar a resident of Pune is one of the fastest triathletes in India having completed multiple triathlons and his personal best for 703 is 546 hours and for full distance itrsquos 1448 minutes Herculean Triathlon He started running in 2018 quickly graduating to triathlonsmdashlearning to swim only later in lifemdashand joined Punersquos Power Peaks Academy run by Ironman certified coach Chaitanya VelhalVelhal 32 who himself is a pro athletemdashhaving finished three Ironmansmdashand is one of the fastest cyclists in the country has been coaching others for the last eight years It was in 2019 that he started training Dalal for Ironman in Pune during weekend camps In fact Dalal finished his first Dubai Triathlon last year with buddy Arham Shaikh also from Velhalrsquos academy becoming the first visually impaired person from India to do soOn why he started training Dalal says that like most people it was the search of weight loss that led him to forms of exercise Having learnt swimming as a child before losing his sight this was something he picked up ldquoI started swimming again and I also learnt that I can cycle if I find a tandem cycle and someone to cycle with And so started this journeyrdquo he says in a conference call from Aurangabad with Jokar and Velhal joining in from PuneJokhar is one of the fastest cyclists in IndiaHis weekly training works in the same way as any triathletersquos would with Velhal who has also done a masters in biomechanics from Australia sending over daily targets along with a nutrition plan Aurangabad he says is home to several national level swimming coaches and houses the regional centre for the Sports Authority of India SAI and also a good track where he can run So training outside of his group is not a problemBut the pandemic and lockdowns made an impossible task harder Dalal would earlier come to Pune every weekend to attend Velhalrsquos training camps for budding triathletes Now Dalal and Jokar who are targeting the full Ironman distancemdash39k swim 1802 k cycling and 422k runningmdashin Kazakashtan in August are taking as much time together as is possibleJokar is the faster athlete Velhal says he has been training for longer So when the two work together the focus is on strengthening the weakest areas ldquoWe need to improve Niketrsquos fitness and his speeds in running swimming and cyclingrdquo he addsNiket Dalal and Omkar JokarThat the two people weigh differently also poses a challenge says Dalal adding that this is especially a problem during tandem cycling Where Dalal weighs 77 kg Jokar is 67 kg And the lighter you are the faster you will be Being the faster athlete also means that Jokar has to adjust his time to Dalalrsquos pace This isnrsquot always easyldquoOn my own I can swim five kilometres in one and a half hours But with Niket it takes twice that time This means I have to survive in water longer and more energy is spent so itrsquos tough Even in running slowing the pace isnrsquot a piece of cakeThen race day brings its own challenges and surprisesSays Dalal ldquoWhen training there are just a few people around us May be five or seven But during events there are hundreds or thousands of participants plus a crowd cheering them on Now the crowd doesnrsquot know that I am differently abled and they donrsquot know how to treat me but the noise can be unnervingrdquo The other issue he says surrounds traffic rulesldquoIn India when we are running my partner is on my right side and the traffic is on his side whereas when we went to Dubai we realised that the traffic was on my side But we had to figure how to make dordquoIn simply being tethered to someone a great trust is being offered and a great responsibility is being undertaken Dalal says when running the tether is made of a cycle tube A certain tension is kept on the rope so that the slightest change is felt ldquoWhen Omkar is turning right I get a sense and when he wants to go left he will tell me He also warns me if there are stones ahead I have learnt that nonverbal communication is sometimes more effective than verbal communication Sometimes for instance Omkar will push me if there is a speedbreaker aheadrdquo he addsBut while performing together comes with its own challenges there are advantages too For instance says Dalal had it not been for Jokarrsquos quick change of strategy and pushing him he may not have finished the Mumbai eventFor Jokar Dalal serves as an inspiration ldquoRecently I was doing a tri at Odisha and in the swimming event the water current was strong Out of 150 participants only around five completed the swim While a regular 38 km swim would take me an hour to complete I took twice that much time When I got done I was low on energy and depressed and felt I should quit But then I thought of Niket and how despite the challenges he faces he manages his events So how could I give up It took me more time to finish my event but by the end of it I was happyrdquoFor Velhal training Dalal has taught him an inclusive approach to the sport ldquoYou realise that sight isnrsquot important Itrsquos certainly not a barrier to doing an Ironman But yes there are a lot of things wersquod take for granted that we learnt with Dalal Teaching with body language for instance Sometimes you point with the hand but you canrsquot do that with Niket I have learnt to empathise and understand what he needs rather than what I think he needs This relationship has helped me grow too In fact I have just spoken to a guy with a dustonia on his right side who wants to do the Ironmanrdquo he addsThere are certain logistical challengesFor instance Dalalrsquos bike is a R12 lakh CoMotion bike imported from the US Every time itrsquos used its spokes need replacements says Velhal adding that finding a replacement is tough in India as Dalal is the only user here The other problem is transport for events ldquoThe bike is as big as a car and so we have to explain to the airlines and event managers that such a bike is coming in We donrsquot want them to reject it or charge large amounts at the last minuterdquo For their Kazakhasthan event in August Velhal and team have already started speaking to the airlinesThere will always be hiccups But for this trio they appear to be writing a new chapter in inclusive sports in IndialdquoThis is a trial and error exercise in a sense This has not been done before in India And so for me and others we are seeing what works and what doesnrsquot whatrsquos truly effectiverdquoIronman TriathlonThe Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of longdistance races consisting of a 24mile 386 km swim a 112mile 18025 km bicycle ride and a marathon 2622mile 4220 km run raced in that order Itrsquos believed to be one of the toughest oneday sporting events in the world and typically takes 16 to 17 hours to complete