Early last year, Vishal TK approached coach Jason Dawson with the wish to train with the Jamaican. Dawson told him to start eating. Dawson does not recall Vishal’s weight, but he felt the six-foot-two sprinter was too thin. “That’s why I called him stickman. I looked at Vishal, and I said, ‘ok I will try to coach you’. But I need you to grant me a favour. Just eat everything you can. I think it has to do with his metabolism because he can eat, but he burns it like this (snaps fingers),” Dawson told .

The 54-year-old’s training regimen is not for everyone. “I am out of my comfort zone, but I am living in hell happily,” is how Vishal, the first and only Indian to clock sub-45 seconds in the 400 meters, described Dawson’s training camp.

By the end of a training session, his athletes typically have nothing left in the tank. Dawson is like the father pushing them to run one more lap or an extra training drill. They are like children who speak freely and fuss, hoping the father’s heart melts.

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Dawson’s hard-yards method bore fruit when, months after he joined the Indian setup, the men’s 4×400 meter relay team finished fifth at the 2023 World Championships final in Budapest. “I am glad they performed like that because they needed it. India needed to see that their team can perform amongst the biggest athletes out there. The youngsters coming up needed to see that,” Dawson said.

Yet, not everyone bought into Dawson’s approach. Thereafter, he took a different set of athletes under his wing. Among them is Vishal, who is reaping the rewards for having faith in the Jamaican. “One of the things that shocked me when I came to India was the mental side of how athletes viewed training. It was more like a resistance because anything that seems new is impossible. Like ‘we have never done this before.’ I would always tell my guys, especially Vishal, that difficult is not impossible. So now when I tell Vishal, ‘this is difficult,’ he says ‘difficult is not impossible, coach,’” Dawson said.

Vishal T K with his father, Thennarasu, after becoming the first Indian to run a sub-45 seconds 400 metres race. (AFI)

Vishal recalls naysayers discouraging him from training under Dawson. The outcome of his first race after he linked up with Dawson gave the cynics fodder. At the Indian Open 400 metre competition in Thiruvananthapuram in March last year, Vishal clocked 49.07 seconds and finished seventh.

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Quick returns

But a month later, he bounced back to win gold at the Federation Cup in Kochi with a time of 46.19 seconds. Four months later in August, at the Inter-State competition in Chennai, Vishal broke the national record for the first time by clocking 45.12 seconds.

‘For my coach Jason’ was scribbled on the back of his bib, an acknowledgement of Dawson’s contribution. “People made me feel bad by saying why are you running a girl’s timing (after the Indian Open). I shut everyone’s mouth after one month when I won the Fed Cup,” Vishal said. “That one month (between the Indian Open and the Federation Cup) there was so much negativity. When I started working with him, people said, ‘I told you Jason coach’s work is hard’. See that is why you are running 48-49. I was like ‘why are you trying to disturb me’. When I was going to the Federation Cup, people said, ‘hey, you can finish in the top 6’. They were trying to hold me back. But I won.”


Born to coach

Dawson, a former sprinter, was drawn to coaching even when he was a teenager. He considers himself fortunate to have the opportunity to pick the brains of Glen Mills, the coach at the famous Racers Track Club, who mentored Usain Bolt. Fitz Coleman, another legendary coach from Jamaica, and the late Lloyd Cowan, the coach of Christine Ohuruogu, the 400 metre gold medalist at the 2008 Olympics, are men whom he was influenced by. When the opportunity to work with Indian athletes came his way, Dawson thought why not.

“So when I came (to India) I observed as much as possible. I realised that talent is there. Before I even came here, I clearly remember telling Fitz Coleman that talent is there in India. He travels the world and he is one of those prolific coaches. He said, ‘yes, talent is there, but we don’t know what is the problem’.”

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Once in India, Dawson took the 400 metres to new heights — first the relay team in Budapest and now Vishal.

Vishal’s coach at the Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education in Thiruvananthapuram, Srinivasan, convinced the quarter-miler, who earlier specialised in the 100 metres and 200 metres, to train with Dawson. His previous coach Vinod Kumar, too green-lighted the move.

At the Federation Cup in Ranchi in May, Vishal clocked 44.98s to become the first Indian to complete the one-race lap in less than 45 seconds. “Coach had told me a week earlier, I want you to be the first 44-second runner in India. He told me, if you do this your grandchildren will remember it,” Vishal said.

But before Vishal broke records, his technique needed to be fixed. Despite being a sprinter, Vishal didn’t use the starting blocks to his advantage. But this wasn’t the only issue.

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“His pattern of running and body language was nothing. I said, ‘Vishal you have to learn to use your hands’. Your hands are very important when you are sprinting. I looked at what he was like on the starting block. Then I said forget about the starting block, I will help you with it later. The starting block was just there as an instrument on the track for Vishal. The starting block is supposed to propel you for your race,” Dawson said.

Vishal terms his start as ‘garbage’ and admits as a sprinter, he should have been better at it. “When I came to him, I was standing up and running and he changed everything. It is 400 metres, not just the first twenty metres or thirty metres. So he made me better in that 370 metres,” Vishal said.

Improving the start is kept for the next season. The immediate focus is the Asian Games in Aichi–Nagoya. Vishal didn’t qualify for the 400 metre final at the Commonwealth Games. The Asiad is an opportunity to end the season on a high.

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“I also told Vishal, you have to keep working hard. Because I am going to coach others. So don’t get comfortable. I am going to push everyone I work with to hit you, because you are up there,” Dawson said.

Vishal is ready to walk through fire. That is how much he trusts Dawson. “Like father and son. Even if he scolds me, I don’t get upset. People come and take photos with me now even when I am watching a race from the stands. I am happy we raised the bar.”