THEBUSINESSBYTES
BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR,
MAY 3, 2026
Tamil Nadu’s Baranica Elangovan once
again turned Bhubaneswar’s Indoor Stadium into her personal record arena,
rewriting the national mark in women’s pole vault for the second time in just
over a month. The 29-year-old cleared 4.23m on her third attempt on Sunday,
eclipsing her own previous national record of 4.22m set at the inaugural
National Indoor Athletics Championships at the same venue in March.
“It was another good day for me,” said
Baranica after her record-breaking effort. Having shifted her training base
from Tamil Nadu to Odisha, the accomplished vaulter continues to scale new
heights in Bhubaneswar, underlining her growing dominance in the event. Nitika
of Madhya Pradesh and Blessy Kunjumon of Kerala shared the next two spots with
identical clearances of 3.90m.
The second day of competition also
witnessed stellar performances in the combined events. Thowfeeq N of NCOE
Trivandrum clinched the men’s heptathlon gold with an impressive tally of 5,350
points, maintaining the lead he had established on the opening day. Army’s
Usaid Khan finished second with 5,288 points, while Odisha’s Jashbir Nayak
secured bronze with 5,250 points.
In the men’s U20 heptathlon, Tamil
Nadu’s Kirthik Vasan S emerged champion with 4,609 points, narrowly edging past
Jinoy Jayan of NCOE Trivandrum, who accumulated 4,518 points. Aryan Parkash of
Madhya Pradesh claimed third place with 4,509 points.
Odisha celebrated a golden moment in the women’s pentathlon as Purnima Hembram topped the podium with 3,835 points. Isha Chandra Prakash of Uttarakhand took silver with 3,671 points, while West Bengal’s Bidisha Kundu bagged bronze with 3,600 points.
The women’s U20 pentathlon title went to Uttarakhand’s Jaskiran Kaur, who amassed 3,272 points. Priya of Haryana secured second place with 3,133 points, followed by Punjab’s Alfaz Kaur Grewal with 3,066 points.
