India’s Pooja Singh rewrote the national U20 women’s national record in the high jump to qualify for the final with a ninth-place finish in the qualification round at the ongoing World Athletics U-20 Championships here.
The 17-year-old, who hails from Fatehbad district of Haryana, cleared a height of 1.83m to finish second in qualification round group B and ninth overall late Thursday night and qualify for the final to be held on August 31.
Daughter of a mason, Pooja broke her own national U-20 record of 1.82m set last year in Korea while winning a silver medal at the Asian U20 Championships.
Nine athletes in group A and three in group B made the cut for the final.
Pooja, who started her journey at the Parta Sports Academy under coach Balwan Singh without a proper landing mat or equipment, had won gold in the U-14 girls’ category with a jump of 1.41m but picked up a quadricep injury which kept her out for 15 months.
On her return, Pooja won a gold medal in the U-16 girls’ category at the 2022 junior nationals with a new national record of 1.76m before claiming another gold in the U-18 category at the 2022 youth national championships.
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