BHUBANESWAR: The Kalinga Indoor hall resembled a miniature athletics stadium — shrunk from 400m track to just 200m, from eight lanes to six and even the width is less. The Mondo tracks of two shades of blue were shining inside under the lights. The athletes were trying their best to maneuver the two tight curves and 10 degree incline at the first National Indoor competition of the country here on Tuesday.
For most it was the first competition on indoor tracks while for a select few international it was business like usual. Yet, despite the novelty factor, the majority of stars have given the competition a miss but the few who competed shone. By evening, there was a national record and a few personal bests on the indoor track especially in jumps.
On the far side the bar was raised to 4.22m. Baranica Elangovan was running with the pole in hand to create a national record – both outdoor and indoor. For an ordinary spectator, it just another jump. For Baranica, however, it was vaulting into a new destiny. She had made adjustments to her approach. The pole is now held at 70 degrees for about eight to 10 strides before lowering it like the nose of an aeroplane to jam it on the planting box to get that extraordinary lift. She has never cleared that height before. She tried to clear that height at the Indian Open Jumps competition in Bengaluru on March 15 but failed.
On Tuesday, as the crowd cheered her on, she managed to clear that height. She ran to her coach who was standing on the side. “It was really very emotional for me,” she said later. Baranica used a shorter pole with a smaller grip on Tuesday. She obliterated her former training partner P Rosy Meena’s 4.21m record. Her coach Milber Bertrand Russell may not be the great philosopher of modern times but has his own philosophy when it comes to pole vault. He has been working with her for more than eight years.
For someone who came to Chennai for studies from a quaint Mayiladuthurai town, this was indeed something special. Baranica was doing long jump and knew nothing about pole vault when she shifted to Chennai. That’s when coach Milber went scouting.
The coach too has another story. “I had to acquire a pole first because it is quite expensive and one of my clients donated one but I did not have a trainee,” he said. “So I went looking for trainees when one PT teacher from her college told me that Baranica is very good.”
But the problem was she was 42kg. “I had to build my physique and slowly started to train,” she said. Exceptional results eluded her and in 2020 she had an ACL tear. She had to undergo rehabilitation and three years ago she shifted to Reliance Foundation High Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar.
“That changed everything,” said Baranica. “I have my own physio and recovery was very good. Even the ACL rehabilitation at the Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance (ABTP) was excellent for my recovery. That’s how I started to improve.” Her previous best before this was 4.15m. “We were mainly focusing on the runway approach only, and previously I was struggling there,” she said. With the season just starting, Baranica is focused on improving her height every time she vaults.
If Baranica enthralled with her vault, few metres away on the long jump pit, Sarun Payasingh jumped to his personal best and as of now the best mark in national indoors – 7.80m ahead of seasoned Praveen Chithravel (national record holder in triple jump).
Sarun, who hails from Odisha is quite unique. Standing at 5 feet 4 inches he is not the tallest of jumpers. Yet on Tuesday he managed to win the first gold at a national indoor event. He thanked his coach and philosophically said: “I am the body, he (coach) is the mind and the success is because of him,” he said.
Day-One results
Men
800m: Mohammed Afsal (Air Force) 1:47.86 seconds, Kalyan JR (Karnataka) 1:53.98 seconds, Sayan Karmakar (West Bengal) 1:56.98 seconds.
U20: 800m: Lokesh Magendhiran (Tamil Nadu) 1:53.92 seconds, Rajdip Pal (West Bengal) 2:02.34 seconds.
3,000m: Shivaji Parashuram (Reliance) 8:09.88 seconds, Vinod Singh (Madhya Pradesh) 8:16.93 seconds, Rahul Kumar Verma (Chhattisgarh) 8:18.21 seconds.
60m hurdles: Krishik M (Karnataka) 7.71 seconds, Rathish P (Reliance) 7.84 seconds, Muhammed Lazan (JSW) 8.00 seconds
Long jump: Sarun Payasingh (Odisha) 7.80m, Praveen Chithravel (JSW) 7.78m, David P (Railway) 7.69m.
Shot put: Ravi Kumar (BSF) 17.17m, Adhish Ghildiyal (Uttarakhand) 16,92m, Balaji (Tamil Nadu) 16.74m
U20: Shot put: Ommkar Prasad Nand (Odisha) 17.77m, SAI Kiran A (NCOE Patiala) 17.00m, Harshit Gahlot (JSW) 16.98m
Women
3,000m: Priyanka C (Karnataka) 9:42.05 seconds, Kajal Rangnath (Gujarat) 9:44.01 seconds, Sushmita Tigga (Odisha) 10:22.30 seconds.
Shot put: Rekha (NCOE Patiala) 15.63m, Mayuri Arade (Karnataka) 9.15m.
U20: Shot put: Dona Maria (Kerala) 13.35m, Khusboo (Haryana) 12.03m, Akhshaya GR (Tamil Nadu) 11.89m.
Pole vault: Baranica Elangovan (Tamil Nadu) 4.22m, Blessy Kunjumon (Kerala) 3.95m, Mariya Jaison (Kerala) 3.380m.
Long jump: Anamika KA (JSW) 6.05m, Manisha Merel (Odisha) 6.04m, Sherin A (JSW) 5.92m.