Elangovan shines in indoor c’ships
Bhubaneswar: Seasoned Tamil Nadu athlete Baranica Elangovan smashed the overall national record in women’s pole vault event in a stunning performance, clearing a height of 4.22m on the opening day of the National Indoor Championships here on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old Baranica, a three-time national outdoor champion, cleared 4.22m to better the earlier national record of 4.21m which has been in the name of Rosy Meena Paulraj since 2022.
Before Baranica’s feat on Tuesday, there was no official national indoor record for women’s pole vault as this is the inaugural national championships.
Blessy Kunjumon (3.95m) and Mariya Jaison (3.380m), both of Kerala, were second and third respectively.
The 4.22m mark of Baranica will now be the national indoor as well as the overall record, and it will just be a formality for the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to ratify it. The officers of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) took samples from her for dope test after her event, a requirement for ratification of national records.
She went on to further improve her national record but failed three times when the bar was raised to 4.25m.
“I have major competitions ahead and was focusing only on the techniques. It worked for me and I am really happy with that. I was mainly focusing on the runway approach only. Previously, I was struggling with the runway,” said Baranica after her feat.
She credited her coach Milber Bertrand Russell, who has been with her since 2016, for her feat.
Baranica, who is currently with the Reliance Foundation High Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar after shifting base from Chennai in 2023, had made a remarkable comeback from an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery on her left leg in 2020.
“I also had ACL surgery in 2020 and it’s been reconstructed. After that I was doing rehab and it was quite hard, it was up and down. All this time I was having pain on and off.”
She said competing indoors is an advantage for pole vaulters as there is no impact of wind.
“Wind is a major factor in pole vault. If you are taking the pole high and if you are having the heavy wind against you, it will be very difficult for you to move forward and attack the last stride approaching the runway. But here, you won’t be having that much thing as there is no wind indoors. You won’t worry anything and you can approach easily. So, it’s an advantage for pole vaulters.”
In other events, local athlete Sarun Payasingh won the men’s long jump gold with a personal best effort of 7.80m.
The 25-year-old Payasingh beat triple jump national record holder Praveen Chithravel of Tamil Nadu, who was competing in long jump here.
Chithravel, who was representing JSW, made only three attempts and left after a best effort of 7.78m which fetched him a silver.
