Great expectations from Pole Vaulter Baranica at Asian C'ships

'She has worked really hard after coming back from injury. The strength and conditioning team have worked really hard to get her in peak physical shape. Technically, she will be using a stiffer and longer pole.'

India will be sending a contingent of 40+ athletes to the Asian Athletics Championships which will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from July 12-16.

Baranica Elangovan is the only Pole Vaulter from India at the meet and will be bidding to become the 1st Indian to win a medal in the women’s pole vault event at the Asian Athletics Championships.

Baranica was the 1st Indian woman to clear a height of 4m in 2023 in April. However, having finished third in the National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships and having failed to win a medal at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships, she had her share of anxious moments before the squad for the Asian Championships was announced.

“I was extremely happy but at the same moment I was feeling very nervous about making the Indian squad. I had not performed up to my expectations in the Federation Cup and National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships. So, I was very worried as I did not know which performances will be taken into consideration. I knew about my potential but ultimately it is your performance that does the talking and I had done well at the Indian Grand Prix 4 earlier this year," Baranica said.

Martin Owens, Head Coach at Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Centre, is enthused about her prospects. “Baranica is in with a shout in the women’s pole vault if she performs up to standard. She has jumped 4.10m twice already this year and looks good for pushing up into the 4.20m range and attacking the Indian national record,” Owens said.

“She has worked really hard after coming back from injury. The strength and conditioning team have worked really hard to get her in peak physical shape. Technically, she will be using a stiffer and longer pole,” Owens added.

Baranica, though, has taken the learnings from the last two competitions. She has now started training with the actual competition cross bar to get a feel of it and to overcome her fear of getting hurt by it.

“After the Inter-State tournament, I started practicing with the real bar. Earlier, I used to practice with the elastic bar. The reason for practising with the real bar is to get the mind adapted to it and in competition mode. With the real bar, there is always a chance of it hitting you after you have landed, which is why a lot of athletes don’t use that in practise. But I felt that it was important for me to overcome that fear of getting hit. I think it will help me hit the ground running from the first jump itself.”

Baranica’s personal best of 4.10m came at the Indian Grand Prix 4 in April this year in Bengaluru. The Indian national record stands in the name of another Odisha Reliance Foundation HPC athlete, Rosy Meena Paulraj, who cleared a height of 4.21m in 2022. Baranica has her sights set on that record now and clearing that should definitely put her in medal contention at the Asian Athletics Championships.

“I will look to clear 4.30m at the Asian Athletics Championships. I had set myself that target for the Federation Cup and the National Inter-State Athletics Championships too and I have done it in practise sessions. The challenge now is to replicate it in an actual competition.”