After year-long ticket checker stint, Rajesh Ramesh’s athletics comeback finds momentum at Federation Cup

400m runner Rajesh Ramesh’s athletics career has been a rollercoaster ride. Although he started young and even managed to take part in the 2018 U20 World Championships, he soon faded away. Injuries, work commitments and COVID-19 nearly nipped his nascent career in the bud in 2020.
But the now 24-year-old wasn’t going to go down without a fight. On Monday, at the Federation Cup in Ranchi, he put up more than a solid fight as he topped the 400m semifinals with 46.13s on the clock, finishing within the Athletics Federation of India’s Asian Championships qualification mark of 46.17s. The Tamil Nadu runner was able to produce better timings than the likes of Asian Games bronze medall Arokia Rajiv and current national record holder and 2018 Asiad silver medall Mohammed Anas Yahiya.
The semifinals may not be the best indicator of what will transpire in the finals, but for Ramesh, even participating at the best level in the country was a dant dream just a few years ago. In 2020, the Railway athlete was posted at Trichy (Tamil Nadu) railway station as a ticket checker where he admits he was an underperformer.
“We were given a fine booklet which had 50 sheets and the seniors expected me to fill it up in a matter of weeks but I could just do just 20 in six months. They were not happy with my performance,” Ramesh said.
The reason for his low output wasn’t a lack of hard work, but his empathy towards young travellers. “As a student, I have travelled without a ticket a few times especially when I was low on cash so I understand. If I found some youngsters I would warn them and let them go. I did get an earful from my seniors but it’s just not in my nature. The 20 people I fined were unruly travellers who spoke rudely and forced me to write them a ticket,” Ramesh explained.

Although he liked his job as a ticket collector, the working hours were taking a toll on athletics. After practice, he would have to rush to the station and change into all whites for his duty which was extended due to the pandemic.
“Since I was given extra duty I hardly got time to train. My duty would start in the morning and end 10 pm and I was left with no energy to train the next morning,” Ramesh recalled.
Ramesh knew that his career would be completely derailed if things continued the way it was, so he finally decided to put his foot down. He took a leave from the railways on the loss of pay and trained hard to get back into shape. It was a tough decision for Ramesh whose father runs a photocopying store back in Tiruvarur drict of Tamil Nadu. Quitting railways entirely wasn’t an option as his income helped run the household. His gamble paid off when national 400m assant coach Raj Mohan decided to include him in the national camp in late 2021.

“He has great potential and I can tell you that he is among the handful who we expect to run below 45 seconds the end of this year. He has a smooth-running technique that almost looks effortless. He also has a great presence of mind and has learnt the art of pacing his race. He has also benefited from training with the best athletes in the camp,” coach Raj Mohana MK said.
With the Indian 400m team still in the rebuilding phase after coach Galina Bukharina left in 2022, he could play a major role in the relay squad. It wouldn’t be unfair to call Ramesh a later bloomer. He started athletics when he was just 12 but couldn’t manage even a drict-level medal in the first six years.
“I was young and wasn’t sure of what event would suit me,” he said. But surprisingly 400m was the only event that he was sure he did not want to try his luck at back then. “Long jump, triple jump, high jump and sprints. I tried almost everything but I was always scared of the 400m. I felt I wouldn’t be able to complete the race,” said Ramesh who now has more dozen medals at both state and national levels.

Ramesh’s fear wasn’t completely irrational as the 400m is perhaps one of the most challenging events on the athletics roster. And when Ramesh finally dipped his feet in the back in the 400m pool in 2016, he clocked 1min and two seconds.
Things turned around for the youngster who soon met coach Prem Anand, who is now part of the national camp setup, and trained athletes at the Chennai college where he was enrolled at. “I worked under sir and gradually brought my timings down. He has helped me a lot,” he said.