If Sunday was dark and gloomy, with a steady drizzle throughout, Monday brought a different kind of blue, with slightly brighter skies.

For Haryana’s Poonam, though, it was anything but bright.

Two successive fouls threatened to end her women’s under-20 javelin campaign at the 41st National junior athletics championships at the Nehru Stadium here on Monday.

Watching from the stands, her coach Hanuman Singh was livid. He charged down and began giving instructions as Poonam walked back after her second attempt.

A third foul would have ended her competition.

“My first thought was to get into the top eight. I had already committed a couple of fouls,” she told The Hindu.

Hanuman’s advice was simple: adjust the direction of release and keep the javelin within the sector.

“He told me to release it a little more towards the inside and use my shoulder,” said Poonam.

She did just that on her third attempt, turning back a little more confidently, while her coach, too, appeared to have settled down.

The 19-year-old gradually found her rhythm and went on to claim gold with a throw of 51.48m.

It was not the first time Poonam had found a way to carry on in difficult circumstances.

In December 2024, just days after her father passed away, she won silver in the under-18 javelin at the National junior athletics championships in Bhubaneswar.

It was Hanuman who introduced Poonam to javelin while she was studying in Class 10 at a school in Haryana’s Fatehabad district. “I didn’t even know what javelin was. Sir took me from the classroom and introduced me to it,” she said.

Hanuman believes there is more to come. “She can throw much better. Her technique is not that good yet, and she has had only about three years of javelin training. She will improve,” he said.

For now, though, an evening that began with two red flags ended with a different colour around Poonam’s neck.