Covering a considerable distance to meet their goals is nothing new to Tamil Nadu twins Ansilin M and Akslin M. The 18-year-olds from the coastal village of Karankadu in Kanyakumari district travel 25 kms one way twice a week just to get a chance to train at a decent ground at the Khelo India Athletic Centre in Kanyakumari.

In the run-up to the Khelo India Youth Games 2023 in Chennai, the sisters used to travel thrice a week to Tirunelveli, 85 kms from their village, to practice running on a synthetic track. And on Wednesday evening at the state-of-art blue turf of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Ansilin and Akslin dominated the 800m race to clinch the gold and silver medals respectively.

“We are happy to win these medals in Khelo India Youth Games but we are not fully happy as we couldn’t come up with our best timing,” said Ansilin, who clocked a time of 2:11.36 to win the gold.

“We don’t have a synthetic track in our area. We used to practice only on mud ground which is so difficult. If we get a chance to practise on synthetic tracks regularly, we will achieve more,” she added.

Born to Maraiya Stephen, a construction labourer in Dubai, and Mettilda Mary, the sisters got hooked to running at an early age on the muddy grounds in the village. The coastal region’s constant rain further impeded their training, making it a monumental struggle for their sports career.

Even the financial condition of the six-member family wasn’t strong enough to support their career. With one of their siblings Micheal Jenu recently joining the Army through the Agniveer scheme has also eased some financial pressure on the family but funding their training and travelling needs is still an uphill task.

But despite all the challenges the sisters managed to perform well enough to impress coach Nalvin Raja, who has been training them for over a year and half now.

“Both Ansilim and Akslin are extremely passionate about running. The interesting part about them is, they are always together. If any one of them doesn’t advance to the next level both of them will be sad and they can’t live without each other. That is evident in the field too. They help each other and motivate each other. They really deserve these achievements,” Nalvin said while explaining what drives the two sisters.

Ever since joining Nalvin, the girls have started travelling to Kanyakumari to train twice a week while juggling their school timings. At the Junior Athletics meet held in Coimbatore in November 2023, the girls bagged a silver and bronze medal and were determined to improve on that showing at the Khelo India Youth Games(KIYG).

On Wednesday, they pushed Karnataka’s Priyanka Olekar, who had won the gold in Coimbatore, to third position.