BHOPAL: A promising teenage racewalker, daughter of a Uttar Pradesh truck driver, has made Madhya Pradesh proud by setting a new national record at the 24th National Junior U-20 Federation Athletics held in Tumkur, Karnataka.
Still just two and a half months away from turning 17, Ranjana Yadav, training at the MP State Athletics Academy in Bhopal, won the 5000m race walk event with a record timing of 23:22:12 seconds on Saturday, breaking the previous mark of 23:43:58 seconds set by Rajasthan’s Manisha.
She finished first among 22 competitors from across the country, pushing the former record holder to third place.
This is Ranjana’s first national record, and she hails from the Chaubeypur area of Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi district.
“I was targeting gold, but the tough competition pushed me to do better and eventually set the national record,” Ranjana said, crediting coach Shiv Kumar Prasad and drawing inspiration from her late mother Urmila Yadav and father Rajkumar Yadav, a truck driver.
The achievement comes just six months after she won her first international medal, finishing second in the 5000m race walk at the 3rd Asian Youth Athletics Championship in Bahrain in October 2025.
Ranjana said her performance in Tumkur will boost her confidence for upcoming Asian and World Junior events, even though the timing is still below the qualifying mark for major championships.
Coach Shiv Kumar Prasad praised her progress, calling her one of the academy’s most promising athletes with strong determination shaped by personal struggles and family inspiration.