Bhubaneswar: Uttar Pradesh’s 18-year-old hammer thrower Anushka Yadav sprang a massive surprise as she smashed the national record with a stunning performance, while pole vaulter Dev Meena also set a new national mark on an eventful opening day of the National Inter-State Championships here Wednesday.
Anushka, who hails from a farmer’s family at Baleni village in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, sent the chain and the iron ball 67.02m to the amazement of those present at the Kalinga Stadium, bettering the nine-year-old previous national mark of 65.25m set in 2017 by Sarita Singh. She is currently the youngest among the national record holders in athletics. She improved more than four metres Wednesday as her previous official personal best was 62.89m while winning gold in the National Games last year.
In fact, Anushka smashed the national record twice out of the six attempts she had. She began with a 62.07m and then went past Sarita’s previous national record with a second round throw of 65.64m. She then cleared 64.81m in her third throw and came up with 61.89m and a foul in the next two rounds before producing a massive 67.02m in her last attempt. Her first round throw even bettered the Asian Games qualifying mark of 61.72m set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). She is, however, in 11th place among the Asian hammer throwers so far in the season. Meena’s historic leap in the men’s pole vault, Madhya Pradesh’s Dev Meena cleared 5.46m to break the previous national record of 5.45m. In the Federation Cup last month, both Meena and Kuldeep Kumar had cleared 5.45m for the then-national record. Kumar, also representing Madhya Pradesh, was third with 5.20m, while G Reegan of Tamil Nadu was second with 5.30m.
Both Meena and Kumar have been named in the 32-member Indian team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Yarraji’s stellar return. Meanwhile, national record holder 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji made a stunning return to competition after a one-year injury lay-off as she ran sub-13 seconds to breach the Asian Games qualifying time set by the AFI. Yarraji, who underwent a successful ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) surgery in July last year, ran 13.14 seconds to go past the AFI’s Asian Games qualifying standard of 13.34 seconds in the heat race itself. Later in the final, she ran an impressive 12.99 seconds to win the gold. The 26-year-old, who ran the race with tapes on both legs, had won a silver in the 2022 Asian Games in China. Her national record stands at 12.78 seconds, which she set in 2023. She had suffered the injury in June last year while training.
Reigning Asian champion and national record holder Gul Veer Singh failed to breach the Asian Games qualifying mark set by the national federation in the men’s 5000m race, clocking a mediocre time in the opening event of the championships. The championship is jointly organised by the Athletics Federation of India and the Department of Sports and Youth Services, Government of Odisha. Suryabanshi Suraj, Minister of Sports and Youth Services, Government of Odisha, attended as the chief guest and officially inaugurated the competition.
On this occasion, Suraj encouraged the competitors and praised Odisha’s sports infrastructure. Welcoming the country’s top athletes, he wished them success and expressed confidence that this championship would add another golden chapter to the state’s sporting history. Other prominent dignitaries present at the inaugural event included Lalit Kumar Bhanot, President of the South Asian Athletics Federation; Bhupendra Singh Poonia, Commis sioner-cum-Secretary of the Sports and Youth Services Department; Yeddula Vijay, Sports Director; and Abhijit Paul, President of the Odisha Olympic Association.
