National Games 2025: Sachin hits a new high in javelin; High jumper Pooja, distance runner Sawan break records

National Games 2025: Sachin hits a new high in javelin; High jumper Pooja, distance runner Sawan break records

With Neeraj Chopra showing the way with his Olympic and World Championship golds, there is now a bunch of Indian javelin throwers who feel they can get onto the big stage. And the group appears to be getting bigger and bigger.

Sachin Yadav is one of them. The 25-year-old from Uttar Pradesh produced a personal best of 84.39m and broke the meet record by more than two metres while winning the men’s javelin throw gold in the 38th National Games at the Ganga Stadium here on Wednesday. With that, he climbed to the fifth rung in India’s all-time list in the event.

Still, Sachin was a bit disappointed.

“My goal was to achieve the World Championship automatic qualification mark (85.50m), but I missed it,” said Sachin.

“I’m close to it and I should be able to achieve it in my next competition,” he added.

Tall and well-built, Sachin appeared to be pumped up during the event. And with his State-mate Rohit Yadav also uncorking two 80m throws, the battle for gold was intense. In the end, Sachin’s fifth round brought him the title, beating Rohit.

At the other end, defending high jump champion Pooja was in a world of her own. While the rest of the field faded away at 1.79m, the 17-year-old from Haryana bettered Swapna Barman’s three-year-old Games record by one centimetre, clearing 1.84m, and then attempted 1.87 but failed in all her three attempts.

“I was the best junior high jumper in the country; now I want to be the best among seniors, too. I wanted to do 1.87, but my health was not very good today,” said Pooja.

“My next target is 1.90 and I’ll do it this year,” she added.

Meanwhile, Asian Games bronze medallist Vithya Ramraj lived up to her billing by winning the women’s 400m hurdles. “I’m happy with the gold but not with the time, this competition is too early in the season, it was very difficult,” said the 25-year-old from Tamil Nadu.

The final day of the Games athletics competition saw another record falling. Himachal Pradesh’s Sawan Barwal, who had bettered the 10,000m meet record on the opening morning, broke G. Lakshmanan’s 5000m Games record while winning the gold comfortably.

Published on Feb 12, 2025