Pooja Singh breaks U20 NR in high jump to qualify for final

LIMA: India’s Pooja Singh rewrote the national U20 women’s national record in high jump to qualify for the final with a ninth-place finish in the qualification round at the ongoing World Athletics U20 Championships here.

The 17-year-old, who hails from Fatehbad district of Haryana, cleared a height of 1.83m to finish second in qualification round group B and ninth overall late Thursday night and qualify for the final to be held on August 31.

Daughter of a mason, Pooja broke her own national U20 record of 1.82m set last year in Korea while winning a silver medal at the Asian U20 Championships.

Nine athletes in group A and three in group B made the cut for the final.

Pooja, who started her journey at the Parta Sports Academy under coach Balwan Singh without proper landing mat or equipment, had won gold in the U-14 girls’ category with a jump of 1.41m but picked up a quadricep injury which kept her out for 15 months.

On her return, Pooja won a gold medal in the U-16 girls’ category at the 2022 junior nationals with a new national record of 1.76m before claiming another gold in U-18 category at 2022 youth national championships.