Asian Athletics C’ship: Teenager Pooja defies odds to win gold

Pooja Singh wins gold in high jump at Asian Championships with a personal best of 1.89m, overcoming challenges and inspiring others from her humble beginnings.

New Delhi: A few days after arriving in Gumi, South Korea, for the Asian Championships, Pooja Singh faced an unexpected challenge. During a training session, one of her shoes tore. The backup pair wasn’t giving her the good grip she needed on the track.

Pooja Singh with her coach Balwan Singh. (HT Photo)

After discussing the issue with her coach Balwan Singh, Pooja decided to tape the torn spikes and go ahead with her jumps on Friday. For someone who grew up in a family struggling to make ends meet, learned high jump clearing bamboo bars, and landed on mats made of paddy straw (parali), this wasn’t the toughest obstacle she had faced.

It was just another challenge for her to overcome in her tough journey. On Friday, when she ran towards the High Jump bar at the Gumi Civic Stadium in South Korea, Pooja was brimming with confidence and produced an outstanding performance.

The 18-year-old showed no nerves as she won a rare gold for India in one of the toughest disciplines. She cleared 1.89m for her personal best and an U20 national record to win her first major international medal. Having sealed the gold, Pooja went after the national record setting the bar to 1.92m (Sahana Kumari, 2012) but could not clear it. Uzbekistan’s Safina Sadullaeva won silver (1.86m) and Kazakhstan’s Yelizaveta Matveyeva won bronze for the same height (on countback).

“My body was feeling good and I was enjoying myself. The competition was very good. I almost cleared the national record of 1.92m but missed by a whisker. But I am happy to set my personal best 1.89m and win a gold medal at such a big stage,” said Pooja.

Coming from a family of meagre resources from Fatehabad in Haryana, Pooja, a mason’s daughter, has seen some tough days but in the last few years, she has emerged as a bright prospect in Indian athletics. With national records in Under-16, Under-18 and Under-20 age groups, her consistent growth has been impressive.

While Pooja shone on the field, Indian athletes continued to give blazing performances on the track. Gulveer Singh sprinted to his second gold medal of the meet in great style, winning the 5,000m with a championship record (13:24.77).

On the back of his gold medal in 10,000m on the first day, Gulveer showed good control and finished with a terrific last lap. With two laps to go, Gulveer, Kieran Tuntivate of Thailand (silver) and Nagiya Mori of Japan (bronze) were running shoulder to shoulder.

Gulveer increased the pace and kept surging ahead even as the other two came close to challenge him but in vain. Gulveer’s winning time of 13:24.77 was better than the Asian Championships record of 13:34.47 set by Al Garni Mohamed of Qatar in 2015.

The third medal of the day was bagged by Nandini Agasara in heptathlon. Nandini was in the lead after the first day. On Friday, she slipped to second place after her javelin performance (34.18m) but made a strong comeback to win the 800m race.

She finished with 5941 points ahead of China’s Liu Jingyi (5869 points) and Cai Juan Chen of Taipei (5608 points). Nandini, the Asian Games bronze medallist, is only the third Indian heptathlete to win the continental title after Swapna Barman (2017) and Soma Biswas (2005).

Parul Chaudhary gave her best in the 3,000m steeplechase, claiming silver medal. Though she could not defend her title, her timing of 9:12.96 improved national record. Kazakhstan’s Norah Jeruto Tanui, the 2022 world champion, was too strong for the rest of the field and led from start-to-finish setting a new meet record (9:10.46).

In javelin, Sachin Yadav (79.62m) and Yashvir Singh (76.67m) qualified the final scheduled on Saturday. Olympic champion from Pakistan Arshad Nadeem, competing for the first time since the Paris high, topped the qualification with a throw of 86.34m.

However, the day for India belonged to Pooja who brought home a medal to cherish. Her journey has been nothing short of inspirational.

Coach Balwan Singh, a former sprinter, trained Pooja at his academy (Parta Sports Academy) with the bare minimum facilities at his disposal. He innovated, took help from others and tried to match the passion of his ward. Pooja used to do yoga and gymnastics before switching to high jump.”Her flexibility and explosive speed were suited to high jump. Besides, she is very disciplined and hasn’t missed a single day of training all these years.

“Bringing her up from grassroots till here has been a difficult journey. The resources were limited. Her family is not financially well off but they fully supported her. We kept taking one step at a time, arranged for her shoes and diet, sometimes asking my friends to sponsor,” he said.

Looking back, Pooja recalled the days when even getting a proper landing mat was a struggle.

“I have reached here after a lot of hard work and struggle and my parents and coach have supported me all through,” Pooja said during an interaction on Friday.

“In 2019, I shifted to high jump. When I started we did not have a mat and I practiced on sacks filled with parali (rice stubble),” she said. “For 2-3 years I trained like that before my coach arranged an old mat. I broke the U-16 national record (1.76m) practicing on it.”

The early struggles have given her a mental resolve that will continue to serve her well even as she scales ever-increasing heights. The bar has been set high indeed.