Asian U20 Athletics C’ships: Pooja breaks 14-year-old high jump national record
With the mark of 1.93m, Pooja won the gold medal making it her second medal at the Asian U20 Championships.
This is the second time Pooja has gone past her personal best this season after breaching the 1.90m mark at the Indian Athletics Series, New Delhi in April. (Youtube Screengrab) High jumper Pooja, 19, recorded a new personal best of 1.93m and broke a 14-year-old national record of 1.92m set by Sahana Kumari at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Hong Kong on Friday.
This is the second time Pooja has gone past her personal best this season after breaching the 1.90m mark at the Indian Athletics Series, New Delhi in April.
With the mark of 1.93m, Pooja won the gold medal making it her second medal at the Asian U20 Championships. With this gold medal, she now holds both senior and junior titles at the continental level.
She also breached the Commonwealth Games qualification mark set by Athletics Federation of India.
After her jump at the Indian Athletics Series, Pooja had said that she is close to the national record and will get it soon. “My eyes are firmly set on the Asian Games but I have to break the national record for CWG. That was my target today but I couldn’t get it,” Pooja had told The Indian Express after her jump in New Delhi. “After a point, getting a new personal best is not easy. We have to go step by step. I have improved my personal best after eight months this time. I believe the national record is near and hopefully I will get it soon.”
This is the first time any Indian high jumper has gone beyond the 1.92m mark after Sahaha Kumari’s national record mark of 1.92m in 2012.
After her personal best at the Asian Athletics Championships last year, Pooja was forced off the track due to a grade-2 ligament tear.
However, after returning from injury, Pooja started training under a new coach, Sergey Biran from Uzbekistan. Sergey is the husband of Svetlana Radzivil, a three-time Asian Games champion and brings immense knowledge of the sport.
This is India’s fourth gold of the event with Nitin Gupta (5000m racewalk), Amanat Kamboj (Discus Throw), and Rahul Jakhar (Decathlon) also winning the title.
India also won two silver and two bronze medals.
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