Indian pole vault athlete Dev Meena shattered the men’s national record at the Inter State Athletics Championship on Wednesday to secure his berth in the Asian Games 2026.
Dev registered a successful vault of 5.46m to break the record he shared with Kuldeep Kumar.
Dev Meena delivered AGAIN! 🔥#IndianAthletics #AFI pic.twitter.com/pH1ptiIaaN
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) June 24, 2026
Dev Meena and Kuldeep produced stunning showing at the Federation Cup Athletics in Ranchi in May to improve the national record twice in a matter of minutes.
The 21-year old Dev logged a vault of 5.42m to go past Kuldeep’s record from last month, before Kuldeep improved on it with a 5.45m effort to reclaim the record. Meena came back to level the record with a 5.45 vault of his
own.
“I was expecting better timing, but I felt so good. Exactly this day last year, I got injured. The same day, I came back to track, and I showed up by myself. It means a lot to me,” he said.
“I’m feeling good, comfortable. Not feeling nervous, though I’m doing a competition after one year. I don’t know how physically strong I am. But mentally, I’m 10 times better than before. So this is what makes me.”
“That also came to my mind. But I kept telling myself that it’s okay, Jyoti. You have proved yourself. There are three months to the Asian Games. I will take care of my knee, and I want to win gold there,” Meena concluded.
Earlier in the day, 18-year-old hammer thrower from Uttar Pradesh, Anushka Yadav, stunned everyone by breaking the national record, with a throw of 67.02m at Kalinga Stadium, surpassing the previous national record of 65.25m set by Sarita Singh in 2017. She is now the youngest national record holder in Indian athletics.
Her previous best was 62.89m, and she improved significantly, even breaking the record twice in six attempts. She crossed the old mark with 65.64m in her second throw and saved her best for last with 67.02m. Her opening throw of 62.07m was also above the Asian Games qualifying mark.
