Noah Nirmal

Noah Nirmal Tom is an Indian track and field athlete born on 13th November 1994. He hails from the Kozhikode district of Kerala state. Noah is a sprinter and represents India in 400m individual and 4*400m relay in international events.

Background

Noah Nirmal was born to Tomichant T.J and his wife. Noah comes from a humble family residing in Kozhikode, Kerala. Noah’s mother is an erstwhile handball player and national-level Gold medalist.

Noah was very passionate about sports when he was young. He’s a big football fan and supports English Premier League giant Chelsea Football Club. He used to play football before he switched to athletics when he was in 6th standard. Noah’s athletics talent caught the eyes of his school coach John Sebastian who tempted him to make a career in athletics.

In 2010, he registered himself at the Sports Authority of India hostel in Kozhikode, where he met SAI coach George.P.Joseph. The new coach trained him in 400m distance running and Noah saw it as a turning point of his athletics career. 4 years later, Noah enrolled in Indian Air Force, where his career began to take off under Air Force chief coach Rajesh MK.

Noah serves in the Indian Air Force. His family has been supportive of him choosing an athletics career. He considers his mother a pillar of his strength since the start of his athletics career. He looks up to 4*400m men’s relay partner Muhammad Anas as his inspiration.

Rise to Glory

After joining the Indian Air Force, his athletics career began taking shape under IAF chief coach Rajesh MK. He started performing well and winning medals at state and national competitions. In October 2018, Noah was called to join the National camp after clocking 45:96s in a 400m run in a tournament. In the same year, he took competed in the National Athletics Championships and won the Gold medal in the 4*400m relay team category held in Bhubaneshwar.

In 2019, Noah made his international debut at the Indian Grand Prix held in Patiala but finished 5th in the final. In that year, Noah participated in the Federation Cup at Ranchi in Jharkhand but finished 7th in the semi-final despite finishing first in the heats. In July, Noah won his first international Gold medal for India in a 4*400m relay team category at International Sprint and Relay Cup in Turkey.

A month later, in August, Noah recorded his personal best of 45.75s in the 400m individual and won a Silver medal at the Czech Club Championships at Mlada Boleslav in the Czech Republic. In October, he won a Gold medal in the 400m individual category at the National Athletics Championships in Ranchi.

Major Achievements

Noah Nirmal broke into the limelight after his 4*400m mixed relay team of himself, VK Vismaya, Muhammad Anas Yahiya, and Jisna Mathew finished 3rd in the heats and qualified for the final of the 2019 World Athletics Championships by clocking 3:16.14s. In the final, they finished 7th with a timing of 3:15.77s. Noah was also a part of the 4*400m relay team at the World Athletic Championships held in Doha but the team finished 7th in the heats with a timing of 3:03.09s and therefore didn’t qualify for the final.

Noah Nirmal will be representing India in his debut Olympics at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Noah is the part of the 4*400m mixed relay team that qualified for the Olympics after the team competed in the final of the 2019 World Athletics Championships.