Pooja improved the national women’s high jump record to 1.93m on her way to winning gold at 22nd Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Hong Kong

After improving a decade-old-record, India’s talented high jumper from Haryana, Pooja, is hungry to achieve more success in the coming days. Her target in coming months is to win medals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in Japan.

 “I’m not resting on my laurels but looking forward to adding more trophies to my cupboard,” says the national record holder.

At the just concluded Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Hong Kong, the 19-years-old recorded a jump of 1.93m to improve a more than decade old national record of 1.92m set by Sahana Kumari in 2012.

Pooja also holds the youth and junior national records.

Her journey to stardom started with making optimum use of facilities available in the rural area of Haryana. Due to the lack of expensive high jump mattresses and other modern equipment at her disposal, initially she practiced on bundles of haystack. Despite meagre resources the talented high jumper improved youth and junior national records.

Winning gold at senior Asian Championships last year in South Korea was a big breakthrough. She finished sixth at the 2022 Asian Games held in China in 2023.

Currently she is training at NCOE (National Centre of Excellence) Bengaluru.

EOM