Baranica Elangovan got her act together on Tuesday evening under floodlights of Bhubaneswar’s Indoor Stadium to improve national women’s pole vault record to 4.22m
Tamil Nadu’s experienced pole vaulter Baranica Elangovan conquered new territory on Tuesday evening under floodlights of Bhubaneswar’s Indoor Stadium. “It was a lucky day for me,” Jubilant Baranica said of raising the bar to 4.22m. Her Tuesday’s performance was a personal best and better than the previous national record of 4.21m set by Rosy Meena in 2022.
The performance of 4.22m was very precious to the 29-year-old international pole vaulter from Tamil Nadu as she has been battling niggle and unsteady performance graph in the past three years. Baranica’s previous best of 4.15m was recorded in 2024. In 2025 her season best was 4.10m.
On Tuesday Baranica was on cloud nine as she got her rhythm right to achieve a massive personal best, which has given a big boost to her confidence. She is eyeing more glory in near future.
In the 2026 season that features Glasgow Commonwealth Games in July and Asian Games in September in Japan, Baranica plans to carry Tuesday momentum forward.
She shifted her training base from Chennai to Bhubaneswar in 2024 and claims to have benefitted immensely as she was getting all the facilities under one roof. “In Chennai there was no physio or post training recovery system at my disposal. I had to travel some miles to avail those facilities. But here in Bhubaneswar everything is available under one umbrella,” she claimed.
Baranica’s next stop will be a domestic meet in Bengaluru and then she will head to Ranchi to compete in the 29th National Senior Athletics Federation Competition to be held between May 22 to 25. The competition in Ranchi is the main competition to qualify for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
EOM
