Gold medallist student athlete’s dual life

Can you imagine a medical student winning gold at the Chengdu FISU World University Games? On Saturday, it was a dream come true for Mariana Machado, the Portuguese long-distance runner who won the women’s 5000m gold.

Medallists in men’s pole vault (from left to right) – Pol.l/cpl Amsamarng (Thailand) – silver, Urho Kujanpaa (Finland) – gold, Koen Van Der Wijst (Netherlands) – bronze

Pursuing medicine at the University of Minho, Machado relied on her profession to help her in athletics. “Learning medicine helps me to be more organised, focused and concentrate on my race. It’s hard for me to choose one, but pursuing medicine in Portugal is not easy. My friends and family had to sacrifice a lot for me and this medal is for all that,” said the 22-year-old, who finished her race at 16:02.58, a second more than the silver medallist Xia Yuyu.

“I think the Chinese were very strong. I tried to push in the final metres, and I’m happy that I could achieve the goal,” she added.

Sticking to the group for the first few laps was a part of her plan to counter the weather. “It was too hot for me. At the start, it was hard for me to compete in a strong place. So, I preferred to stay with them in the group and attack later.”

Considering herself a deserving candidate for the gold, Machado is proud that she can strike a balance between medical studies and athletics. She said, “I feel very nice and proud to win gold because it’s hard to pursue medicine with a sport like athletics. I think I deserve the medal so much as I worked hard.”

Aleksandra Smiech (Poland), bronze medallist in women’s hammer throw

There were a few personal bests on the penultimate day of athletics at the Chengdu Games and a handful who topped the podium. This included the women’s triple jump and heptathlon gold medallists, Tugba Danismaz and Isabel Cristina Posch.

Austria’s Posch recorded a personal-best score of 6,107 to win the heptathlon event.

Like Machado, she too felt it hard to keep up with the climate and wanted to take a back seat at the start. “It was hard to compete in the heat. The goal was to stay behind at first. I just wanted to secure my lead in the overall ranking, and as I realized that others started running fast, I wanted to keep up with them. I didn’t believe it would be a new personal best.”

As a nutrition science student from IUBH Internationale Hochschule, Posch believes that her studies help in athletics. “It does help as an athlete as you learn the basics of nutrition and much more,” she said.

Members of the Chinese team in women’s 20km race walkIn the men’s pole vault finals, Urho Kujanpaa was elated to win Finland’s sole gold medal of the Chengdu FISU Games and compete against his friend, the bronze medallist, Netherlands’ Koen Van Der Wijst. “It was just great the atmosphere out there. I have been competing in various championships with the bronze medallist for around 10 years, and winning this is amazing,” said the University of Tampere student.

Earlier, China and Turkiye dominated the team and individual 20km race walk events, respectively. Yet another event that saw two Chinese in the podium was the hammer throw with Li Jiangyan and Xu Xinying winning gold and silver. The much-hyped 100m men’s hurdles ended as Japan’s Ken Toyoda crossed the line ahead of the crowd favourite, China’s Ning Xiaohan by 0.04 seconds.

WRITTEN BY ANNIKA SAUNUS AND NETRA. V, FISU YOUNG REPORTERS