Two and a half laps into the second heat of the 3000m steeplechase at the Olympics and Lalita Babar's foot grazes the hurdle before the water hazard. While the pack splashes through the little pool, Babar lies almost on all fours, the sudden break in momentum drawing gasps from the spectators at the Estadio Joao Havelange.

This was it. Falling in a race, be it anywhere in the world, usually means the end of the unlucky athlete's chances. The athlete sprawled on the floor, competitors racing past, a thousand dire scenarios running through the mind. Such was Babar's predicament. The rhythm she had carefully built up had been demolished.

Rhythm. Perhaps one thing that is as essential to a runner as is oxygen to us normal beings. Some days a runner will have it and the whole run will just be a breeze. On others, that ‘rhythm’ will disappear and every step will feel like a long hard trudge towards that finish line. For all its importance, rhythm is dangerously brittle. It can go disappear with as much as an inadvertent touch. Rhythm is what most runners, the ones who earn Olympic medals, say helps them get that coveted metal around that neck.

With something as fragile as that holding the keys to success on the running track, a fall would surely blow it to smithereens. But this conception was exactly what Lalita Babar, the 27-year-old from Mohi, a parched village in Maharashtra’s Satara district, turned on its head during an incredible nine minutes, nineteen seconds and 76 microseconds for herself and the whole of India. 

Lalita treated her tumble as just an irritating sting, going on to lead the pack for around 300 meters and then keeping her wits about herself to ensure that she timed her finishing kick just right to bring India a huge dose of cheer at an Olympics where good news has been more of a mirage.  

Breaking the steeplechase National Record (NR) is not something new for the shy and slim Babar. She broke it at the Asian Games in 2014 where she won Bronze, seven months later she went past that mark on her way to Gold at the Asian Championship in Wuhan, two months later it was the turn of that record to fall once again as a new one was set inside the Birds Nest in Beijing at the World Championship. Lalita carved her name into history, becoming the first Indian athlete to enter the final of a track event on that stage. Six months later, the record was shattered again at the Federation Cup and then finally, the girl who took up running to bring in some extra money to the household when the crops couldn’t sustain her family, broke that by now a ‘customary barrier, she did it on the biggest sporting stage possible and in the most emphatic manner possible. 

Lalita’s time on Saturday evening was pegged at 9:19.76 seconds, more than seven full seconds faster than the previous National Record. She was the seventh fastest athlete to qualify for the finals of the steeplechase, becoming only the second Indian after PT Usha to line up for an Olympic final after 32 years. 

The field that will take the track for the final of the steeplechase is formidable. Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet has already clocked a sub-nine minute timing this season. Kenya’s Hyvin Jepkemoi is snapping at Jebet’s heels with a Personal Best (PB) of 9:00.01 seconds this year and veteran Tunisian Habiba Ghribi is a constant danger.

The signs are ominous but Lalita has shown that she has a knack for shaking things up quite a bit. In the World Championship final, mouths hung open as the lithe runner insouciantly led the pack for a more than half a race. On Saturday, grimaces turned to awe as she picked herself up from the edge of the water hazard, simply found an extra gear and blazed through for a blistering finish. India will be expecting some more of that same belligerence from the girl from Mohi at 7.45 pm on Independence Day.

Lalita has already shown that she takes to the big stage like a fish to water, now is the time for the biggest splash of all.