From turf to track, Hry girl’s big career gamble lands her within 800 m of Asiad glory

Bhopal: Once touted as a promising hockey player developing under the aegis of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), 23-year-old Pooja Olla from Haryana’s Fatehabad flipped the script of her young sporting life.

Ditching the stick and successfully transitioning to track and field, aided in no small measure by the SAI National Centre of Excellence (NCOE), Bhopal, she is now set to chase glory for the flag in the women’s 800 m sprint at the upcoming Japan Asian Games.Her journey from turf to track began with a piece of advice, which she then followed with a six-month stint at SAI’s Bhopal facility, eventually bringing her to within 800 metres of national glory in track and field at the Japan Asiad.The middle-distance runner secured a spot in India’s Asian Games 2026 track and field contingent after finishing second, clocking 2:04.37, in the women’s 800 m at the recently concluded 65th National Inter‑State Senior Athletics Championships, Odisha.Her journey goes back to 2017, when she arrived at the Badal’s SAI training centre, Punjab with a hockey stick in hand and determination in her stride.As much as the coaches there spotted and were impressed by her raw athleticism — speed, endurance and a competitive temperament — they also saw the limits to how far hockey alone could take her.

“We told her: ‘Your engine is built for the track,” SAI’s athletics coach, Saurabh Yadav, recalled telling Pooja, adding, “Hockey gave her the basics, which she could potentially build on and refine with middle-distance running.”Heeding that piece of advice after training six months as a hockey player at SAI, Punjab centre, the 23-year-old switched to athletics. There, under specialised middle-distance coaching and an intense regimen calibrated to develop aerobic capacity, pacing and tactical awareness, Pooja realised her true potential.“The shift wasn’t instant,” she told TOI, adding, “Hockey taught me grit and team instincts, running taught me how to race on the track.”Later, in 2023, coach Yadav brought her to Bhopal’s SAI Centre, in the hope that it would serve as a springboard to her ambitions in track and field. Her early months in Bhopal were a study in adaptation, as interval sessions, lactate threshold workouts and race-simulation repeats replaced ball drills and penalty corners.Nutrition, recovery and weight-training were re-tooled to suit the demands of 800m — a race often described as the most brutal middle-distance event, requiring both speed and endurance in equal measure. Coaches monitored splits, refined her kick and practised race scenarios to sharpen her tactical nous.Results followed. From steady improvements in national meets to podium finishes that caught eyes, Pooja’s progress was steady and purposeful.

Her qualification to the national squad for the Asian Games is both a personal milestone and a validation of SAI’s talent-identification philosophy: that skill can be transposed between sports when matched with the right guidance.For Pooja, her event at the upcoming Games isn’t just a competition. It is a gamble, a bold career pivot. “I still love hockey, but the track feels like home now,” she said.The regional director of SAI Central Regional Centre (CRC) Bhopal, Abhisek Singh Chauhan, congratulated Pooja on her bold switch from stick to sprint and extended his best wishes for the upcoming Asiad, while also crediting her coaches and the sports‑science staff at SAI NCOE with preparing her for the track.