PRIYA MOHAN TRYED SINGING, DANCING, KEYBOARD PLAYING, AND EVEN PAINTING. “I tried them all because my parents insisted,” she says, “but athletics has always been my first and only love.”
Today, the 19-year-old is the centre of a rising buzz in Indian athletics. Not just because she beat Dutee Chand, India’s fastest runner, four days ago. Biomechanics experts are hailing her as a potential world-class athlete with incredible muscle-levers.
“We’ve tested over 2000 elite athletes at our center,” says Anthony Chacko, director of the Karnataka state-run Centre for Sports Science. “But her readings are way better than any athlete who has walked in here.”
“Her torque (the strength and force generated by the legs and muscles surrounding the thoracic spine) is around 480 Newton metres, whereas most elite athletes we tested were around 280 Nm. She has an incredibly high rate of recovery. If she stays injury-free, she has the potential to become a world-class athlete,” says Chacko.
When running, the four limbs, as well as the muscles surrounding the spine – shoulder extensors, hip flexors, lateral spine rotators, shoulder flexors – and leg muscles – glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves – assist in creating clockwise and counter-clockwise torques that allow for speed generation. Priya’s running torque provides a solid foundation on which pace-work can be built.
Strength, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance, and adaptation were all tested as part of the center’s performance evaluations. “Her peak torque, relative peak power, and recovery heart were all far too high for that sport.” “We also required her to participate in a recovery intervention involving hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which assisted her in reducing fatigue,” Chacko adds. Experts at the centre predict “great scope for improvement” for Priya, who started the season with a time of 52.37s in the 400m and will soon be within striking distance of the national record of 50.79s.
