Noah Nirmal Tom, member of India’s 4x400m relay teams at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2022 Commonwealth Games, sat out for the majority of 2023 with injury. It happened to be a headline-grabbing year for relay in India, with the men team’s captivating show at the Budapest World Championships followed by the Hangzhou Asian Games gold.
While Noah felt proud that relay was getting its moment in the sun in the country, it was also “very difficult” for him to suddenly find himself sidelined during the phase.
Back on the track fit and hungry, Noah is also back in the mix for the 4x400m men’s relay team. The 29-year-old from Kerala has made a confidence-building start to the season, winning the Indian Open 400m meet in Trivandrum last month. He clocked 46.40s in the final, going past Muhammed Anas (46.48) who was part of both the Worlds and Asian Games relay outfits.
A week later, Noah turned up for the National Open Relay Carnival in Chandigarh and bagged the men’s 4x400m gold alongside Anas, Arokia Rajiv and Muhammad Ajmal with a timing of 3:05.71.
“After last season, I didn’t expect that I would start this year in this manner. The 400m was really good for me; the relay not so much because we were expecting a timing of 3:03. And I’m trying to focus on relay this year,” Noah said.
Noah is currently in Bahamas with the rest of the Indian relay contingent for a month-long training-cum-competition stint leading up to the World Athletics Relays there on May 4-5. It’s a big season for the relay team seeking to build on its 2023 promise in the Olympic year and the World Relays, as the qualifying event for the Paris Games, is the first major checkpoint.
The tune-up time in Bahamas will conclude with the trials to pick the team for the world meet, amid competition for spots and concerns around injuries (Rajesh Ramesh, part of the Worlds and Asian Games quartet, is reportedly recovering from injury). And with the strength in his body and belief in the mind returning, Noah is mentally gearing up for the event that will determine their Paris qualification.
“The goal is to get into the finals, and then take it from there. It won’t be easy. But after last year, everyone is confident enough to deliver on the big stage. We want to achieve those kind of things again,” Noah said.
Personally, however, Noah doesn’t wish for a repeat of last year. He could take part in just one meet in all of 2023, a sciatic nerve injury keeping him sidelined for around seven months. From the high of the Tokyo Olympics — Noah was part of the 4x400m team that set a new Asian record in the heats (3:00.25) and missed out on the final spot by a whisker — and the joy of taking part in the 2022 CWG, this was a challenging low.
“It was very difficult. I was part of the team before the injury, and suddenly I found myself out of it. I was also out from the camp before the Asian Games,” he said.
The relay team, with its gold in Hangzhou on the back of its Budapest exploits, joined the euphoria around the Indian contingent’s Asian Games show. Away from all of it, Noah tried to channel all his attention on coming back stronger.
“I wanted to concentrate on myself, rather than on what they were doing. Sometimes the moral level would go down. But I made sure that it was up the next day,” he said. “I went back to my department (Indian Air Force) and worked with my coach on my recovery and fitness.”
Problem areas were identified, and given extra attention to during the rehab period. “I was struggling with my endurance level. From November to January, I was way behind in that aspect. I kept working, just ran, ran, ran and built my strength and endurance gradually,” he said.
The “hard training” during the month-long stay in Bahamas will further help in his comeback trail. So will acclimatization to the weather and conditions before the all-important World Relays.
“I will work on my speed and explosiveness in this period,” he said. “And if we improve our individual timing and collectively the relay timing, we’re confident of doing well in the World Relays.”