HONG KONG, May 29: Teenaged high jump star Pooja Singh shattered the national senior record en route to winning the gold medal, leading a strong Indian show on the second day of the Asian U20 Athletics Championships here on Friday.
The 19-year-old delivered the performance of her career, sailing over 1.93m and bettering Sahana Kumari’s 14-year-old previous national record of 1.92m that had stood since 2012. Sahana herself was there at the venue beside Pooja as coach, watching the youngster rewrite history
India collected seven medals, including four gold, on the day and jumped to the second spot in the medal tally, behind China.
Pooja went for the Asian junior record of 1.96m but missed it narrowly. Her personal best before this was the 1.90m she had cleared during the Indian Athletics Series meet in New Delhi in April 2026.
Pooja setting a new national record was not a surprise as she is also the current Asian champion. She won the women’s high gold at the Asian Championships in South Korea last year with a 1.89m effort.
She climbed to joint second in the Asian U20 all time list behind Tatyana Efimenko of Kazakhstan (1.95m of 1999). Yoko Ota-Hunnicutt of Japan (1.93m of 1993) and Xingjuan Zheng of China (1.93m of 2006) are the other two in the joint second spot with Pooja.
Pooja, who did not compete at the recent Federation Cup in Ranchi, also breached the 2026 Commonwealth Games qualifying mark of 1.92m set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
Daughter of a mason at a village in Fatehabad, Haryana, Pooja earlier did her practice jumps on village fields with bamboo poles and sacks of husk due to the financial hardships she faced at the start of her career. In fact, she began as a gymnast before switching to high jump.
India has so far won four gold, two silver and two bronze in two days of competitions.
Nitin Gupta won gold in the men’s 5000m race walk event, clocking 19 minute 47.49 seconds and Amanat Kamboj picked up a yellow metal in the women’s discus throw event with an effort of 52.24m.
Rahul Jakhar won India’s fourth gold of the day in the men’s decathlon with a cumulative 7185 points in the gruelling 10-event discipline.
Sadhana Devi (silver in women’s triple jump), Upkar (silver in men’s decathlon) and Neeru Pathak (bronze in women’s 400m) were the other medal winners on the second day.
On Thursday, Nipam had opened India’s medal account with a bronze in the women’s 100m. (PTI)
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