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CHENNAI: ALMOST two years ago, a 16 year-old high-jumper from Haryana had shown glimpses of what she could do after leaping 1.82 metres for a silver medal at the Junior Asian Athletics Championships in Yecheon, South Korea. Cut to May 2025, that same girl, now 18, has gone a step above and won her country gold at the senior Asian Athletics Championships with a jump of 1.89m. This is Pooja, the latest high jump exponent of the country. And she is quietly filling the void left by Sahana Kumari.
This is one of three gold medals India won on Day 4 of the Asian meet in Gumi, South Korea, with heptathlete Nandini Agasara and long-distance runner Gulveer Singh adding to India's medal tally.
It was not easy for Pooja, a daughter of a mason, to pursue a career in sport. Yet she did. From training with bamboo sticks as bar and sacks of rice husks as landing mat to a gold medal at the senior Asian meet, she has come a long way. What makes Pooja's gold special is that she had won it in the same country where she made her mark in Asia as a junior athlete. She initially stumbled at the 1.83m mark. But once she went past it, there was no looking back. She got past the 1.86m mark on her second attempt. She took the Gumi Civic Stadium by surprise when she leapt 1.89m in her first attempt. She also threatened to break Sahana Kumari's national record leap of 1.92m.
Pooja was lost for words in her attempt to encapsulate her feelings. "The competition was really good. I wanted to clear the 1.92m mark, but I missed out on a margin. Winning gold for India validates my struggles and hard work for many years," she said during a media interaction post her jump.
She explained her journey, which she termed 'difficult'. "I started high jump way back in 2017. But for the first two-three years, I didn't have the required equipment. After I got them (landing bed, poles and jump stands), I had broken the U16 national record," she recalled. Then she went on to break the U18 record, and with that leap on Friday, the U20 record. She has set her eyes on the Olympics. "I would want to bring home the gold from there," she signed off.
Meanwhile, Nandini's day saw both highs and lows of being a heptathlete. Ending Day 3 on top with 3610 points, her chances of gold was in threat for a brief period. After posting a 6.13m leap in the long jumps earlier, Nandini saw a blip in the javelin throws. A throw of only 34.18m and only 556 points, it put her in second position behind China's Liu Jingyi. "I thought I could throw 38m to 40m but my elbow started paining," she said. That pain, she felt, may have been an aggravation of her elbow injury from 2024.
Coming into the 800m dash which is the seventh and final event of heptathlon, the 21-year-old felt the pressure to win. "I thought I'd maintain the lead after the long jumps, but coming into the track, I knew I had to give my best." Nandini did just that, by finishing first with a timing of 2:15.54 seconds, almost 10 seconds earlier than her competitor. She is the first heptathlete to win a medal at this level since Swapna Barman in 2017.
With 5941 points in this discipline (Asia leader) Nandini sets her eyes on the national record (6211, set by JJ Shobha in 2004). "I thought I would break it here. But the javelin throw deterred that," she signed off.
Long-distance runner Gulveer Singh continued his menacing form at the track. He rounded off his Asian meet with another gold medal in the men's 5000 metres finals, clocking 13 minutes and 24.77 seconds.
Steeplechaser Parul Chaudhary also put another feather on India's cap on the day, with a NR run of 9:12.46 seconds earning. It was eclipsed by another brilliant run by Norah Tanui of Kazakhstan (9:10.46s), who took gold. Parul had to settle for silver.
India will enter the final day with eight gold, seven silver and three bronze medals. Animesh Kujur (Men's 200m), Jyoti Yarraji and Nithya Gandhe (both women's 200m), Vithya Ramraj and Anu Raghavan (both women's 400m hurdles), Sachin Yadav and Yashvir Singh (both javelin throw) will be keen to add more medals for India.
Day 4 Results
Men: 5,000m Gulveer Singh (India) 13:24.77, Kieran Tuntivate (Thailand) 13:24.97, Nagiya Mori (Japan) 13:25.06, Abhishek Pal (India 6th) 13:33.51.
Women: 3000m steeplechase: Norah Jeruto Tanui (Kazakhstan) 9:10.46, Parul Chaudhary (India) 9:12.46 (NR), Daisy Jepkemei (Kazakhstan), Ankita (India 5th) 9:41.54.
High jump; Pooja (India) 1.89m, Safina Sadullaeva (Uzbekistan) 1.86m, Yelizaveta Matveyeva (Kazakhstan) 1.86m.
Heptathlon: Nandini Agasara (India) 5941 points, Liu Jingyi Chin (China) 5869 points, Cai Juan Chen (Taipei) 5608 points
