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....
