Clean sweep for Tamil Nadu girls in pole vault

CHENNAI: It was a clean sweep for Tamil Nadu in the women’s pole vault event on Day 1 of the 61st National inter-state senior athletics meet at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Friday evening. While E Baranica won the gold clocking 4.05m which broke the meet record of 4.0m set by Khyati Vakaria in Guwahati back in 2018. Baranica’s statemates Rosy Meena Paulraj (4m) and Pavithra Venkatesh (3.90m) won silver and bronze respectively.
Despite delivering a strong performance, Baranica felt she could have done better. "To be able to break the meet record was very good. Having said that, but I am not very satisfied. I expected to touch 4.20m and will hope to do that in the upcoming tournaments," Baranica told TOI. The graph of the 25-year-old, who hails from Mayiladuthurai, has been on the rise in the last few years. In 2018, she had clocked 3.80m during the All-India Inter-University meet.
Subsequently, Baranica suffered an ACL tear that year which forced her to be out of action for almost six months as she went under the knife. She came back stronger and clinched gold (3.90m) during the 60th edition of National inter-state meet held in Patiala last year. She had won gold clocking 4.05m at the Indian Grand Prix 4 event held in Bhubaneswar last month. "The confidence is high and is my self-belief. I am beginning to trust my preparations more," said Baranica, who trains under coach Milber at the Sky Vault academy in Chennai.
Abhishek, Sanjivani win 10,000m events: Uttar Pradesh’s Abhishek Pal (29 minutes, 55.51 seconds) won the men’s 10000m event while the women’s 10k race was bagged by Maharashtra’s Sanjivani Jadhav.
Sreeshankar rewrites meet record enroute to long jump final: In-form M Sreeshankar, from Kerala, topped the qualification rounds with a jump of 8.01m to make the long jump final. Sreeshankar rewrote the meet record set by Prem Kumar (8.00m) in 2013. Sreeshankar will have a tough fight on his hands with statemate Muhammed Anees Yahiya (7.85m) and Tamil Nadu’s Jeswin Aldrin (7.71m) not too far away in the final which will be held on Saturday.
Results: 10000m: Men: 1. Abhishek Pal (UP) 29:55.51 seconds; 2. Gulveer Singh (UP) 29:55.71; 3. Dharmender (Rajasthan) 29:55.71; Women: 1. Sanjivani Jadhav (Maharashtra): 33:16.43; 2. Prajakta Godbole (Maha) 33:59.34; 3. Kavita Yadav (UP)35:00.33
Pole Vault: 1. E Baranica (TN) 4.05m; 2. Rosy Meena Paulraj (TN) 4.0m; 3. Pavithra Venkatesh (TN) 3.90m