Kamal Ghorui
Tamil Nadu’s Baranica Elangovan bettered her own pole vault national record by clearing 4.23m on the second day of the inaugural Indian Indoor Open Combined Events and Pole Vault Competition at the Indoor Athletics Centre of Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.Elangovan had set the previous national mark of 4.22m in March this year during the maiden National Indoor Athletics Meet at the same venue. On Sunday, after two failed attempts, she improved the record by 0.01m. She later attempted 4.30m but failed to clear the bar in all three attempts, admitting she was drained by then.Speaking after the event, both Elangovan and her coach Milber Russell expressed satisfaction with the performance, especially since they were not expecting such a result.“I didn’t prepare with any set expectations. I simply focused on improving my technique and accepted whatever performance came. As long as it came from sticking to my basics, I was happy with it,” said Elangovan, who has already cleared the 4.10m Asian Games qualification mark three times this year.Russell is now looking ahead to the upcoming Federation Cup in Ranchi. “She has already crossed the qualification mark, so now we are focusing on national competitions and making small technical changes. That showed clearly today with a good jump, so we are happy and confident going forward to the Asian Games,” he said.Besides Asiad, Russell is also eyeing the Busan International Pole Vault Competition, where Elangovan has been selected to compete. However, he is not keen on pushing her to chase the Commonwealth Games qualification mark of 4.45m. “We are not pushing too hard because pole vault is a very tough event and excessive pressure can lead to serious injuries,” the coach added.Nitika Akare of Madhya Pradesh and Kerala’s Blessy Kunjumon finished second and third respectively, both clearing 3.90m.In other events, Thowfeeq N of NCOE Trivandrum won the men’s heptathlon gold with 5,350 points, while Tamil Nadu’s Kirthik Vasan S claimed the men’s U20 heptathlon title. Odisha’s Purnima Hembram topped the women’s pentathlon with 3,835 points, while Uttarakhand’s Jaskiran Kaur won the U20 pentathlon gold with 3,272 points. NR in 4x100m mixed relay: Even though none of the Indian relay teams impressed on the second day of World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, Botswana, the 4x100m mixed relay team broke the national record by clocking 41.35s.After dropping the baton in their Round I race on Saturday, the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS made amends in Round II on Sunday, finishing sixth without error.However, they missed out on qualification for the 2027 World Championships in Beijing, with only the top two teams securing direct berths.It was disappointment for both the men’s and women’s 4x100m teams, who dropped the baton in their respective races. The women’s team finished last with a time of 53.90s, while the men’s team was disqualified for passing the baton outside the takeover zone.Meanwhile, the men’s 4x400m team failed to finish after Amoj Jacob, running the second leg, suffered a cramp. The mixed 4x400m relay team also finished last, clocking 3:19.40s.
