Abdulla Aboobacker sounds alarm on athlete burnout

Triple jumper from Kerala blames trend on training methodologies used at private academiesKOCHI: Three years ago, triple jump in India witnessed a significant leap with athletes like Praveen Chithravel, Karthik Unnikrishnan, Abdulla Aboobacker and Eldhose Paul all breaching the 17-metre barrier. Their achievements raised hopes of a new dawn for the sport in the country but Aboobacker has now sounded the alarm on a key problem area — athlete burnout and the inability of players to transition to the senior level.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Interestingly, Aboobacker — who will be representing India at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo from Sept 13 — attributes this trend of career stagnation to aggressive training practices employed by private academies.“States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka still have a lot of talent in triple jump. Although many juniors show promise, they struggle to transition successfully to the senior level,” the 29-year-old Olympian from Nadapuram, Kozhikode told TOI.Aboobacker believes the root cause lies in overtraining at a young age. “Several private academies push junior athletes beyond their limits in pursuit of short-term glory. While this may yield results early on, it often leads to long-term injuries or burnout. Many promising athletes are forced to retire early or see their performance plateau,” he said.Aboobacker, who rose through Kerala’s school-athletics circuit, considers himself fortunate to have avoided this fate.

“I should say I somehow managed to escape the clutches of those academies. Otherwise, my career may have ended before it really began,” he said.Despite the challenges, Aboobacker remains hopeful of new talent coming through. He singled out Tamil Nadu’s Selva Prabhu Thirumaran and Kerala’s Mohammad Muhassin as talents to watch out for. “Both are doing well. But it’s now up to the Athletics Federation, SAI and coaches to nurture them and ensure they have the proper support system,” he said.Aboobacker himself trains at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), a world-class high-performance centre aimed at grooming India’s Olympic hopefuls through state-of-the-art facilities and elite coaching.On the World Championships in Tokyo, Aboobacker said he was focused on making the final. “At Budapest, I missed out by just 0.3m. I want to make amends. My first goal is to qualify for the final,” he said.Asked about his medal chances, he remained grounded. “The top 16 contenders have all crossed 17 metres. Winning a medal will depend on that day’s performance. But I’ve been preparing for this event for two years and with the support of IIS, especially in terms of injury management and recovery, I can concentrate on my performance. My ultimate goal is to win a medal in Tokyo,” he said.