Well...I used to be a proponent of the straddle technique. Yes - people refuse to believe me now, but back then I used to be an active participant in all track and field events. I won the high jumping contest two years in a row. I even made it to the finals of district level inter-school competition. Unfortunately, I never took it seriously.
Anyway, I think I was in the eighth grade when this happened. The next day, a district level high jumping competition was scheduled to happen. I had been avoiding practice all week. So I was forced to practice after school, with nobody but the PT master to give me company. The session wasn’t going too well. I was repeatedly failing to clear even regular heights. Until I saw her. She was sitting on the cement benches, under the tree near the school temple. She was a studious girl. She was the darling of almost all the teachers. She was beautiful. She was my first crush.
So here she was, probably waiting for somebody to come and pick her up. She wasn't usually this late. She was reading something. Could have been a textbook. I could not make out if she was observing me practice. But I assumed she was. Immediately, as if on cue, my performance started improving. The PT repeatedly kept raising the bar and I kept clearing it within 3 attempts.
After sometime, the master wanted to call it a day. But my audience was still very much present – all alone. Nobody had arrived to pick her up yet. So I asked the PT to proceed and decided to continue practicing all by myself.
A school senior had recently set a school high jumping record of 1.43m. I think the world record still stands at 2.43m, set by Javier Sotomayer in 1989. I decided to have a go at the school record. I failed in my first two attempts. Then, I started working up the crowd around me, as I had often watched those guys at Olympics do before their jumps. Only, in my case, the crowd was imaginary. I approached the bar with the perfect run-up, took the perfect leap and cleared it. I landed in the sand with a thud. I could hear my imaginary audience applauding me. I got to my feet and looked towards the cement benches, half expecting her to be on her feet and wildly applauding my record-breaking attempt. She wasn’t there. To say that I was disappointed would be a big understatement.
The next day, I easily qualified for the district level inter-school finals. I think I came fourth in the finals. My PT thought it was a creditable achievement, especially for someone who had practiced only a couple of hours the previous day.
Anyway, I never got to find out if she saw my record-breaking jump. I never had the courage to ask her about that evening. I never told her that I had a crush on her. And yeah..i think I never got over that crush. As the song goes – first love(crush?) never dies. :-)
