CHENNAI: Sahana Kumari, former Olympian and National record holder, has been actively working behind the scenes in bringing talents to the fore. Not long ago, she saw her ward Pooja Singh break her own national record – which stood for 14 years – at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Hong Kong.
Now, she sees another one of her wards in Basant Kumar Meghwal shine. As the sun started settling down in the Western city of Eugene in Oregon in the United States of America Basant saw an opportunity to go high. And he did it in style. After faltering in the first attempt to breach 2.21m, the 19-year-old from Sri Ganga Nagar district in Rajasthan, succeeded in his second attempt. However, his Algerian counterpart Younes Ayachi managed to breach it in his first attempt. “We (Younes, Basant and Great Britain’s Otis Poole) all tried to breach the 2.24m mark but it did not happen. Breaching marks in the first attempt is something that I am constantly working on,” Basant told this daily from Eugene on Monday.
In his first two seasons (2024 and 2025) Basant’s best mark were around the 2.10 metre marks. While that is good enough for a junior, it was clear that he needed to get past it. He credited his coach Kumari’s efforts for his breakthrough year. “We worked especially on the explosiveness and the run-up. She fed me with a lot of confidence during training,” the jumper, who trains in Anju Bobby Sports Foundation High-Performance Centre in Bengaluru, said.
On the final day of the competition, he repaid her faith in the form of a silver medal. As he collected the Indian flag from an official, he straight away went in search of his coach. Then came down Kumari, who was trying to hold her tears back. “It was a great moment to have the medal on my neck. We have worked for this for two years,” the high jumper added.
Initial days
Son of a a driver as well as an agricultural labourer, Basant took to high jump, thanks to his school physical education teacher Iqbal Singh. “I was a class five student,” he remembered, before adding, “Iqbal sir had insisted that I take up high jump, and from thereon, I improved,” he said.
His father had to work overtime to make sure ends meet. However, that never came in between Basant’s journey in becoming an athlete. “There was not a point where my father believed that I should stop pursuing sport. They saw my talent and felt I could make it,” he said.
On Wednesday, he will return to India as a World silver medallist, at a young age of 19. Employed as a petty officer in the Indian Navy in Bengaluru, Basant now sets his eyes on the next season. “I hope to improve my mark next season,” he signed off.