Tintu Luka: From remote Kerala village to Olympic semi-final in London

When Tintu Luka ran the race of her life to enter the semi-finals of the women's two-lap race, not many in India took note. Most were focused on the upcoming bout that boxer MC Mary Kom would fight in a couple of hours against World number 2 Nicola Adams.

Mary lost. Much after the heartbreak and celebration of a champ, it dawned that another Indian woman was making her mark in London. Amid the new cheer, there were whispers - Tintu who? India's super athlete PT Usha will have them know that the 23-year-old girl from Kerala is among the most promising athletes in India.

Tintu has trained with Usha at her academy in Kerala for over a decade now. The mentor was known as the Payyoli Express in her hey day and missed an Olympic bronze by a whisker at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984; she believes her protege has the potential to give India its first Olympic medal in athletics.

Tintu Luka was not on any list of medal hopes that fond Indians drew up as the country's largest and most-promising Olympic contingent headed to London. Not even on that of the national athletics coach Bahadur Singh, who said he'd be happy to see his 14 athletes better their own performances in London. She may still be far, far away from a medal, but she is no more Tintu who?

That changed on Thursday when she ran the second heat in her event to finish third, clocking 2 minutes, 1.75 seconds and narrowly pipping Morocco's Malika Akkaoui. Tonight, in the semi-final, she will be up against the likes of Caster Semenya and Alysia Johnson Montano.

Tintu is from Kannur in Kerala. He father is a mason in Saudi Arabia, who has struggled all his life to make ends meet and provide for his wife and three daughters. Her village, Valathode, does not have electricty right now because of heavy rains. Tintu was born in 1989. As a young child she walked 5 km through hills to reach school.

Her big break in life came when her uncle read an advertisement in a newspaper. Tintu, who was a skinny child with raw talent, arrived at Usha's school. Her parents were enthusiastic sportsmen, her mother Lissy had even been a state-level, long-jumper.

She is not very tall in a field of strapping athletes from all over the world, but has long strides. And she is said to be fiercely aggressive. As a young athlete at Usha's school she soon outran all other girls and had to race the boys as she trained.

Luka broke into the international scene when she won the gold in the 4x400m relay event at the 15th Doha Asian Games in 2006. She was 17 years old. She followed that up by winning the silver medal at the Asian Junior Athletic Championships held in Jakarta.

In 2010, Luka broke the 15-year national 800m record held by Shiney Wilson at the Continental Cup in Croatia where she timed 1:59.17. However, she finished a disappointing sixth at the 2012 Commonwealth Games at Delhi.

In response to this performance, her mentor PT Usha said that Luka lost her concentration because she could not cope with the building crowd pressure. Soon, Luka ended up winning the bronze medal in the 800m at the 2010 Asian Games.

She also won multiple medals at the Asian Grand Prix and Asian All Stars Athletic Meet in 2010.