Hong Kong, China: Indian high jumper Pooja Singh etched her name into the record books after breaking a 14-year-old senior national record en route to winning gold at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships 2026 on Friday.
Competing at the Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground, the 19-year-old cleared 1.93m on her very first attempt, surpassing the previous Indian national record of 1.92m set by former champion Sahana Kumari in 2012.
The remarkable jump not only secured Pooja the gold medal but also shattered the Asian U20 Championships record of 1.90m, held since 2006 by Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Radzivil. Her performance also exceeded the Commonwealth Games 2026 qualification mark of 1.92m, underlining her emergence as one of India’s brightest athletics prospects.
Pooja dominated the competition from the outset, clearing 1.91m comfortably before producing the record-breaking leap. China’s Meiqi Chen finished with silver after clearing 1.80m, while Chinese Taipei’s Pei-hsuan Lin and Sri Lanka’s D.K. Mihinsa Dewmini shared the bronze medal with jumps of 1.72m.
The feat marked the second time this season that Pooja has crossed the qualification standard for the World Athletics U20 Championships 2026. Earlier this year, she won silver at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships with a jump of 1.87m and later improved her personal best to 1.90m at the Indian Athletics Series 3 in New Delhi.
Hailing from Haryana, a state renowned for producing elite athletes, Pooja has rapidly risen through the ranks of Indian athletics. In 2025, she became only the second Indian woman after Bobby Aloysius to win the women’s high jump gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championships, signaling her arrival on the continental stage.
Now, with a national record, a continental title, and Commonwealth Games qualification under her belt, Pooja Singh’s historic jump in Hong Kong marks another major milestone in what is shaping up to be a stellar athletics career.
