Asian Athletics: High jump gold winner Pooja Singh claims she used bamboo pole, stubble sacks in early days

FOR 18-year-old Pooja Singh, hailing from the farm lands of Haryana, her early days of training for high jump involved scaling a bamboo pole and using stubble sacks as a landing mat.

The youngest person in the Indian contingent reaped the reward for her toil on Friday (30) after she scaled 1.89m to win a gold medal in women’s high jump in the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.

“I started in 2017 and till 2019 I was doing yoga and gymnastics, I have took part in multiple events as well. In 2019, I selected high jump and I have reached here after a lot of hard work and struggles,” Pooja told reporters.

Pooja said practicing on sacks filled with stubble was the method which helped her break the national record at U-16 level.

“When I started high jump I did not have a mat, I would practice on sacks filled with parali (stubble),” she said.

“I did that for 2-3 years before I got an old mat and practicing on that I made the U-16 record (1.76m)." Since then there was no looking back.

Regarding her medal winning performance, Pooja is happy to have scored her personal best, but laments she could not clear the Asian record of 1.92m.

Nandini Agasara

Heptathlete Nandini Agasara did not let elbow pain come in the way of winning a gold.

She claims she had an elbow injury one year ago, and had undergone therapy at the national camp to get it cured.

But during the shot put event, she once again felt a little pain in the elbow.

It got aggravated during the javelin event, and she fared poorly. She lost out on her lead to the nearest Chinese compatriot.

But she regained her lost ground during the 800-meter race.

Nandini said she was under pressure after the javelin event, but the coaching staff helped her to put a strong show in the subsequent events.

“All the coaches supported and motivated me and I used that to make myself confident to go for the gold."

However, she regrets not breaking the national record of 6200 points.