Indian long jumper Shaili Singh added another international medal to her growing collection, clinching gold in the women’s long jump at the New Taipei City Athletics Open 2026 with a best effort of 6.24m.
The 21-year-old emerged victorious despite not producing her best form of the season. Shaili’s winning mark came in the second round, and none of her competitors were able to surpass it as she secured the top spot on the podium.
Her series read: 6.03m, 6.24m, 6.23m, X, X, 6.10m, highlighting a consistent competition despite a couple of fouls in the latter stages.
While the gold medal will be a welcome boost, Shaili has already demonstrated significantly better form this season. Just weeks ago at the Federation Cup 2026, she claimed silver with a season’s best jump of 6.58m, a mark that placed her among the leading long jumpers in Asia this year.
Her personal best of 6.76m, achieved in 2023, remains one of the best performances by an Indian woman in recent years and underlines the potential many believe she is yet to fully realize.
Shaili first shot to prominence as a teenager when she won silver at the World U20 Athletics Championships in Nairobi in 2021. Coached by legendary long jumper and Olympic medalist Anju Bobby George, she quickly emerged as one of India’s brightest field-event prospects. Her silver medal in Nairobi came behind Serbia’s Adriana Vilagoš and marked one of the finest performances by an Indian jumper at a global age-group championship.
Over the past few seasons, Shaili has established herself as one of India’s leading long jumpers, regularly competing alongside national record holder Ancy Sojan and helping raise the standard of women’s horizontal jumps in the country.
The victory in New Taipei City may not have featured the distances Shaili is capable of producing, but it demonstrated another important quality—the ability to win even when not at her very best. Championship competitions often demand consistency rather than personal bests, and the Indian jumper delivered exactly that.
With the Asian Games cycle gathering momentum, Shaili will be encouraged by the fact that she remains capable of challenging for medals while operating below her peak level. The next objective will be to rediscover the form that saw her jump 6.58m earlier this season and move closer to her personal best of 6.76m.
U20 Asian Athletics Championships 2026 | Hong Kong, China
In 2012, Sahana Kumari cleared 1.92 metres and set an Indian national record that nobody could touch for fourteen years.
Yesterday, the athlete who broke it was five years old when it was set.
And Sahana was standing right there when it happened — not as a competitor watching her record fall, but as a coach, having helped prepare the very athlete who surpassed her.
Indian athletics has produced remarkable stories this season. None of them come close to this one.
A Record Built to Last — and Someone to Break It
National records in field events are not meant to fall easily. Sahana Kumari’s 1.92m stood for over a decade, surviving a generation of Indian high jumpers who came, improved, and still couldn’t reach it. It was the kind of mark that began to feel permanent — a ceiling that defined the limits of what Indian women’s high jump could achieve.
Then came Pooja. Born in an era when Sahana’s record was already years old, she grew up in Indian athletics with that 1.92m as the mountain at the top of every training plan. She cleared 1.91m first — breaking her own U20 national record and moving to India’s all-time No. 2. Then, on her very next attempt, she cleared 1.93m and the fourteen-year record was gone.
The Coach Who Handed Over the Crown
What transforms this from a great sporting story into something truly rare is Sahana’s role in it. She travelled to Hong Kong as part of India’s coaching staff — present not to compete, but to guide. To support. To share everything she learned from a career that produced that very record with the athlete now standing on the runway beneath it.
When the bar was set at 1.93m and Pooja cleared it, Sahana was among the first people she looked to. The picture from Hong Kong captures it perfectly — the former record holder standing beside the new one, wearing a smile as wide as Pooja’s own. There is no trace of the bittersweet. Only pride.
That is not something that can be manufactured or scripted. It is the authentic expression of someone who understands that sport is not about preserving your place in history — it is about making the history worth preserving.
Five Years Old When the Record Was Set
The number that reframes everything: Pooja was five years old in 2012 when Sahana cleared 1.92m. She did not watch that jump as a rival or a peer. She was a child. She grew up with Sahana’s record as simply the way things were — the high watermark of Indian women’s high jump, a number that seemed impossibly large.
Now she has surpassed it. And the woman who set it coached her to do so.
Fourteen years. Two generations. One bar. One perfect moment in Hong Kong.
What Sport Is For
Athletics is often told as a story of individual achievement — a single athlete, a single moment, a single mark in the record books. But the greatest stories are the ones where the thread runs between people, across time, connecting those who came before with those who come next.
Sahana Kumari built something in 2012. She did not abandon it when she moved into coaching. She carried it with her, and eventually handed it to a 19-year-old in Hong Kong who was ready to take it somewhere new.
The record is Pooja’s now. The legacy belongs to both of them.
The U20 Asian Athletics Championships 2026 are being held in Hong Kong, China.
U20 Asian Athletics Championships 2026 | Hong Kong, China
Days ago, she was sent back from an airport.
Today, she soared higher than any Indian woman in history.
In one of the most extraordinary and emotionally charged performances Indian athletics has ever produced, Pooja has shattered the Senior Women’s High Jump National Record at the U20 Asian Athletics Championships 2026 — clearing 1.93m to etch her name permanently into the history of Indian sport.
Let that sink in. A junior athlete, at a junior championship, has just set the all-time Indian women’s high jump record.
Two Records. Two Attempts. One Evening.
The sequence of what unfolded in Hong Kong is almost too dramatic to believe.
First, Pooja cleared 1.91m — improving her own U20 National Record and moving to India’s all-time No. 2 in the event. It was already a landmark performance, the kind that would have been the headline of any other athlete’s career.
Then she stepped back onto the runway and went again.
1.93m. Clean. Cleared. The bar stayed on its pegs. India had a new Senior Women’s High Jump National Record — one that had stood since Sahana Kumari’s 1.92m in 2012, a mark that endured for over a decade. Pooja didn’t just reach it. She went beyond it.
In the space of two consecutive attempts, she broke the U20 national record, claimed the all-time No. 2 position, then immediately rendered that ranking obsolete by breaking the senior national record.
The Record in Context
Sahana Kumari’s 1.92m had stood for more than thirteen years. National records in field events, especially those set at elite international meets, have a way of lasting. They demand not just talent but the perfect convergence of form, conditions, competition, and courage.
Pooja produced all four in Hong Kong. At a junior championships. As a U20 athlete. The youngest holder of India’s all-time women’s high jump record.
Her 1.93m also cleared the Commonwealth Games 2026 qualification mark of 1.92m — meaning that alongside the history, she has booked her place at the Commonwealth Games in the most emphatic fashion imaginable.
The Airport That Almost Stopped History
The context of this performance makes it all the more staggering. Just days ago, Pooja was among the 23 members of India’s contingent whose visa applications were marked “Unsuccessful” — and who were turned back from the airport on the eve of the championships. The reigning Asian High Jump champion faced the very real possibility of missing the competition entirely through an administrative failure entirely outside her control.
She got through. She got to Hong Kong. And then she cleared every bar that was put in front of her.
Whatever frustration, anxiety, or disruption that visa ordeal caused, Pooja channelled none of it into hesitation. She channelled all of it into the runway.
India’s New High Jump Queen
Pooja entered this championships as the reigning Asian High Jump champion. She leaves it as the greatest female high jumper in Indian history — the first to clear 1.93m, the current national record holder at both U20 and senior level, a Commonwealth Games qualifier, and the athlete who proved that a bureaucratic nightmare at an airport was nothing more than a minor inconvenience on the way to something historic.
India’s women’s high jump national record stood for thirteen years. It fell tonight.
It fell to a junior.
The U20 Asian Athletics Championships 2026 are being held in Hong Kong, China.
Birsa Munda Stadium, Ranchi | Federation Cup 2026 | May 22, 2026
Ancy Sojan has moved to the top of the leaderboard in the Women’s Long Jump final at Federation Cup 2026, registering a season-best jump of 6.56m on her second attempt to assert her authority in what is shaping up to be a gripping contest.
Ancy Takes Control
The Kerala jumper came into today’s final as the season leader and favourite, and she has backed that billing up when it matters. Her 6.56m leap — an improvement on her previous season best of 6.54m — is a statement of intent. Ancy is jumping with confidence and rhythm, and if she continues to find her range with each attempt, a bigger mark looks well within reach before the competition closes.
Shaili Singh Close Behind
Hot on her heels is the ever-dangerous Shaili Singh, who has registered 6.46m to sit in second place. The gap between the two is 10 centimetres — significant, but far from insurmountable with attempts still remaining. Shaili has the biggest personal best in this field at 6.76m, and she is more than capable of producing a jump that completely reshuffles the standings. She will know that her best is still ahead of her this evening.
The top two are pulling away from the rest of the field, and the battle between Ancy and Shaili alone is worth the admission.
The 6.84m Mountain
While the immediate battle for the Federation Cup title is compelling, the number that truly defines the stakes of this competition remains 6.84m — the Commonwealth Games 2026 qualification mark. To reach it, an Indian athlete would need to surpass Anju Bobby George’s national record of 6.83m, a mark that has stood for over two decades.
Ancy’s current 6.56m and Shaili’s 6.46m both leave a significant gap to that standard. But with attempts still remaining and both athletes clearly in competitive form, the final is far from over. A special jump — the kind that only championship pressure can produce — is not out of the question.
The Final Is Live
The Women’s Long Jump final at Federation Cup 2026 is in the balance. Ancy leads, Shaili chases, and the runway at Birsa Munda Stadium holds the answer to what comes next.
Stay tuned for further updates as the final continues. Federation Cup 2026 runs from May 22–25 at Birsa Munda Stadium, Ranchi.
Birsa Munda Stadium, Ranchi | May 22, 2026 | 18:00 IST
The stage is set. The runway is ready. And six of India’s finest long jumpers are primed to take flight.
The Women’s Long Jump event at the Federation Cup 2026 promises to be one of the most compelling track and field contests of the domestic calendar year. Scheduled for Day 1 of the meet at Birsa Munda Stadium in Ranchi, the event gets underway at 18:00 IST — and with the Commonwealth Games qualification mark looming large, the stakes could not be higher.
Ancy Sojan: The Woman in Form
All eyes will be on Ancy Sojan, who arrives in Ranchi as India’s in-form long jumper and the current national season leader. Her 2026 season best of 6.54m, backed by a personal best of 6.71m, places her at the top of the domestic pecking order. Earlier this year, Ancy claimed a bronze medal at the Asian Indoor Championships — a performance that announced her intent and confirmed she is in the form of her life. She enters Federation Cup as the clear favourite, but she knows that resting on recent laurels is not an option.
Shaili Singh: The Perennial Contender
Hot on Ancy’s heels is Shaili Singh, arguably the most talented long jumper India has produced in a generation. With a personal best of 6.76m — the best in this field — Shaili is technically the athlete closest to the Commonwealth Games qualification mark. Her season best of 6.52m suggests she is still finding top gear, but when Shaili is on song, few in Asia can match her. A big performance in Ranchi would do wonders for her confidence ahead of a packed international season.
The Rest of the Field
The competition does not end there. Mubassina (PB/SB: 6.38m) and Pariksha (PB/SB: 6.10m) both come in with their personal bests also serving as their season bests, meaning they have room to grow — and surprise. Bhavani Yadav (SB: 6.27m, PB: 6.44m) and Sherin (SB: 6.07m, PB: 6.45m) are experienced campaigners who cannot be written off, particularly in the charged atmosphere of a national championship.
The Commonwealth Games Shadow
Hovering over every jump will be the Commonwealth Games 2026 qualification standard of 6.84m — a mark that demands not just excellence, but history. To hit that standard, an Indian athlete would need to surpass Anju Bobby George’s national record of 6.83m, a mark that has stood for over two decades and remains one of Indian athletics’ most celebrated achievements. It is a mountain of a task, but Federation Cup provides the platform, the competition, and the motivation.
Whether or not the national record falls on Thursday evening, this promises to be a breathtaking contest between six athletes all chasing the same dream — to fly further than any Indian woman ever has.
Federation Cup 2026 runs from May 22–25 at Birsa Munda Stadium, Ranchi.
Sherin Gafoor Breaches 6m Barrier for First Time This Season
In a competition that emphasized grit over record-breaking distances, Sherin Abdul Gafoor secured the women’s long jump title at the Indian Athletics Series-6. Competing at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Sherin recorded a season-best jump of 6.07m, making her the only athlete in the field to cross the 6-meter mark.
While 6.07m secured the gold today, it remains a conservative mark for an athlete of Sherin’s calibre. The 24-year-old Tamil Nadu jumper has a formidable pedigree, with a personal best of 6.46m set in 2024 at the Tamil Nadu Senior State Championships.
Sherin’s recent career has been a battle against resilience. After an injury-laden 2023 that limited her to just two competitions, she has been on a quest to rediscover the form that once made her a top-three jumper in the country. Her 6.07m today is a significant psychological milestone, marking the first time she has cleared 6 meters in the 2026 season—a clear sign that her physical conditioning is trending in the right direction.
Despite the win, the overall performance of the field was notably below par compared to the explosive marks seen earlier this year. To put today’s results in perspective, India’s top long jumpers have been operating at a much higher altitude this season:
- Ancy Sojan: 6.54m (Season Best)
- Shaili Singh: 6.52m (Season Best)
- Pavana Nagaraj: 6.47m (Season Best)
In comparison to these elite benchmarks, the 6.07m winning mark highlights a “defensive” day in the pit for the second-string field. Meryl Ann Mathew finished second with 5.85m, while Lakshanya S.N. took the bronze with 5.82m.
For Sherin Gafoor, the gold medal is a vital stepping stone. As a Master’s student at Loyola College and a former World Youth silver medalist, Sherin has the technical foundation to bridge the 40cm gap between her current form and the Asian Games qualifying standards.
Triple Jump Triumph: Asha Ilango Soars to Season-Best Mark at Indian Series-6
The Indian triple jump circuit has a new frontrunner. Representing Tamil Nadu, Asha Ilango delivered a career-defining performance at Indian Series-6, shattering the 13m barrier for the first time with a massive leap of 13.52m. The mark not only secures her a lifetime best but also stands as the fastest and furthest jump in India this season, signaling her arrival as a major contender for the upcoming Interstate Championships.
Ilango’s progression has been steady, but this 13.52m leap represents a significant tactical breakthrough. By finding her rhythm on the runway, she managed to outclass a field that included seasoned champions and rising stars.
The competition in Sangrur also highlighted the incredible depth of India’s youth talent. Sadhana Ravi, only 18 years old, claimed the second spot on the podium. Ravi proved her mettle by clearing 13.02m, making her and Ilango the only two athletes in the field to breach the elusive 13m mark during this meet. Ravi, who has been consistently climbing the junior ranks, is quickly becoming a name that senior athletes can no longer afford to overlook.
Rounding out the podium was the reigning National Indoor Champion, Mallala Anusha. While Anusha fell just short of the 13m threshold with a best of 12.94m, her consistency remains a benchmark for the discipline.
There are moments in sport when an athlete is not just competing against others, but against her own limits. Right now, Baranica Elangovan is doing exactly that.
Just a day after a national record in the men’s pole vault grabbed attention, Baranica made sure the spotlight stayed on the event. Competing at the Indian Indoor Open Combined Events and Pole Vault Competition in Kalinga Stadium, she improved her own national record by clearing 4.23m.
What makes this performance special is not just the number, but the way she built it. She started her competition calmly, clearing 3.90m and 3.95m without trouble. From there, she moved up with confidence, going past 4.00m and 4.10m on her very first attempts.
Then came the big moment.
At 4.23m, Baranica faced a real test. After two failed attempts, she had one last chance. With focus and composure, she got it right on her third try setting a new national record and once again proving her consistency at the highest level in India.
“I wasn’t really aiming for a record. I was focusing on my technique, but I’m happy I could improve the national record,” Baranica told NNIS Sports after breaking the national record.
This wasn’t a sudden breakthrough. Earlier this season, she had already cleared 4.10m at the Indian Open Jumps, crossing the qualification mark set by the Athletics Federation of India for the Asian Games. Since then, she has kept pushing forward, improving step by step.
Interestingly, she even attempted 4.30m after her record jump, showing that she is already thinking beyond her current mark. Though she couldn’t clear it this time, the intent was clear she is not done yet.
Bhubaneswar is quickly becoming her favourite stage. From winning gold at the National Indoor Championships to setting back-to-back national records, the city has turned into a place where she keeps getting better.
“All the work and preparation are geared toward the Federation Cup and Inter-State Championships. I’m preparing for the major competitions. As I said, I need to focus on my technique,” she added.
Baranica’s journey is a reminder that progress in athletics doesn’t always come in big leaps. Sometimes, it is about small improvements one centimetre at a time that slowly build something remarkable.
And right now, with every jump, she is raising not just the bar, but the expectations for Indian pole vault.
Shaili Singh is currently leading the women’s long jump after three rounds at the Indian Athletics Series in New Delhi.
She recorded a best jump of 6.24m in her second attempt and chose to pass her third attempt.
Mubassina Mohammed is in second place with a best of 6.05m, achieved in her third attempt.
So far, these are the only two athletes to have crossed the 6m mark in the competition.
Series so far:
• Mubassina — 5.98m, foul, 6.05m
• Shaili — foul, 6.24m, pass
The competition remains open heading into the remaining rounds.
