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NEW DELHI: A star was born at the National Inter-State Championships on Wednesday as Uttar Pradesh’s 18-year-old hammer thrower Anushka Yadav produced a stunning performance to rewrite Indian athletics history and become the youngest national record holder in the country.Competing at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, the teenager from Baleni village in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district smashed the women’s hammer throw national record with a massive effort of 67.02m, eclipsing the previous mark of 65.25m set by Sarita Singh in 2017.What made the feat even more remarkable was that Anushka broke the national record twice during the competition. After opening with a throw of 62.07m, she surpassed the long-standing mark with a second-round effort of 65.64m before producing a sensational 67.02m in her final attempt.The performance represented a massive leap from her previous official personal best of 62.89m, which she had recorded while winning gold at the National Games last year. Her opening throw itself was enough to clear the Athletics Federation of India’s Asian Games qualifying standard of 61.72m.
From farming fields to national record books: Anushka’s remarkable journey
Anushka’s journey to the national record books is as inspiring as her achievement. Hailing from a farmer’s family, she initially wanted to become a sprinter before her father, former hammer thrower Sushil Yadav, guided her towards the throwing event.“My father makes me play hammer. I have three personal coaches, including my father and Chirag Yadav. I trained at my local ground,” Anushka said after her record-breaking effort.The teenager revealed that she first picked up the hammer at the age of 12 and now has much bigger ambitions.“I want to throw 70m plus and win gold in the Asian Games,” she said.Her achievement becomes even more impressive considering she suffered a ligament fracture just a few months ago.“It happened in March when I tried to fix some problem in our tractor at our piece of land at home. My brother and father were also there at that time. Luckily, I recovered soon enough,” she said.
Record-breaking day lights up National Inter-State Championships
While Anushka stole the spotlight, the opening day also witnessed another national record as Madhya Pradesh’s Dev Meena cleared 5.46m in the men’s pole vault, improving on the previous mark of 5.45m.National record holder Jyothi Yarraji also made an emotional return from a year-long injury lay-off, clocking 12.99 seconds to win the women’s 100m hurdles title.“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 myself. It means a lot to me,” Yarraji said.
