BHUBANESWAR: Pooja Singh comfortably crossed 1.85m in her high jump event of the U-18 girls heptathlon with her personal best in the ongoing 39th national Junior Athletics Championship at Kalinga Stadium here on Monday, which was better than her best jump of 1.82m in this meet here on Sunday.
She also bettered her national U20 high jump record of 1.83m set recently in Peru at the 2024 World Athletics U20 meet. Her 1.85m record rewrote the national U20 women’s high jump national record.
Daughter of a mason, 17-year-old Pooja hails from Fatehabad district in Haryana. She started as a gymnast before switching over to high jump. "The Kalinga stadium is one of the lucky grounds for me during the 62nd National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2023 here, being a junior athlete who won the gold medal with my best performance of 1.80m. That gave me a boost to my jump. Yesterday I was confident that I would set a new National record with 1.85m, however I missed the opportunity. Today I made it in the heptathlon event."
Her coach Balwan Patra said, "I am also excited to see the outcome of the results. Her strength is in the jumping events, and I hope she will do better in sprinting events also. She made a blunder during the 200m race today, though she got a decent start, but in the middle of the race she thought that she had changed the track and almost gave up the race. At the finishing point it was confirmed that she was on her track. She has a few more events on Tuesday. I am confident she will make a podium finish in her debut U-18 girls heptathlon event."