The men’s hammer throw competition at the 65th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2026 witnessed a strong display from India’s leading throwers, with Damneet Singh and Praveen Kumar both surpassing the Asian Games qualification standard.
Damneet Singh led the way with an impressive throw of 69.72m, producing one of his best performances of the season. His effort comfortably cleared the qualification mark, reinforcing his position among India’s top hammer throw athletes and strengthening his case for selection to the upcoming Asian Games.
Close behind was Praveen Kumar, who also delivered an outstanding performance with a throw of 69.58m. His effort likewise exceeded the qualification standard, ensuring that two Indian athletes reached the required benchmark during the same competition.
The performances by Damneet and Praveen highlighted the growing competitiveness of the men’s hammer throw in India. With both athletes producing qualification-standard throws at the national championships, the event reflected the increasing depth in the discipline and the positive momentum Indian athletics continues to build ahead of major international competitions.
Domestic championships have consistently provided athletes with the opportunity to showcase their form under competitive conditions, and the Interstate Championships once again proved to be an important platform for securing qualification marks. Both throwers capitalised on the occasion, delivering performances that met the required standard when it mattered most.
For Damneet Singh, the 69.72m effort demonstrated his consistency and ability to perform on the national stage, while Praveen Kumar’s 69.58m throw underlined his readiness to challenge among the country’s best. Together, their qualification-standard performances provide encouraging signs for Indian athletics as preparations continue for the Asian Games.
With two athletes breaching the qualification mark in the same competition, the men’s hammer throw emerged as another event that showcased India’s improving standards in the field disciplines. Their performances add further optimism to the country’s growing strength in the throws as the international season approaches.
The women’s shot put competition at the 65th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2026 turned into a showcase of India’s growing strength in the event, as three athletes surpassed the Asian Games qualification standard of 16.25m in an impressive display of depth and quality.
Leading the field was Manpreet Kaur, who delivered a commanding performance to claim the gold medal with a season-best throw of 17.75m. The effort not only secured victory but also stands as India’s best women’s shot put mark of the season. Consistent throughout the competition, Manpreet demonstrated why she remains one of the country’s leading throwers, producing the standout performance of the event.
The battle for the remaining podium positions was equally competitive. Krishna Jayasankar secured the silver medal with a throw of 16.96m, comfortably surpassing the Asian Games qualification standard and reinforcing her credentials at the national level.
Joining her at the same distance was Srishti Vig, who produced a personal best of 16.96m to finish with the bronze medal. The performance marked a significant milestone in her career, as she not only earned a place on the podium but also achieved the qualification standard for the Asian Games while setting a new lifetime best.
The competition highlighted the encouraging progress being made in Indian women’s shot put. Having three athletes exceed the qualification benchmark in a single event reflects the increasing depth and competitiveness within the discipline. Such performances are a positive sign for Indian athletics as preparations continue for major international competitions.
The results also underline the importance of domestic championships in providing athletes with the platform to deliver breakthrough performances. With Manpreet Kaur producing the country’s best throw of the season and both Krishna Jayasankar and Srishti Vig achieving the qualification standard, the event proved to be one of the most successful women’s shot put contests of the championships.
The strong performances offer optimism for Indian athletics, with multiple athletes now emerging as contenders on the continental stage.
Karnataka’s Sindhushree G produced a career-defining performance at the 65th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2026, rewriting the women’s pole vault national record with a sensational clearance of 4.25m.
The 25-year-old athlete delivered the standout performance during the competition, surpassing her previous personal best of 4.00m by an impressive 25 centimeters. The mark not only established a new national record but also secured her qualification for the upcoming Asian Games.
Sindhushree’s achievement carries additional significance on the continental stage. Her clearance of 4.25m currently ranks as the fifth-best performance in Asia this season, underlining her growing stature among the continent’s leading pole vaulters.
The emotional moment was made even more special by the athlete’s heartfelt tribute to her late father. Reflecting on her record-breaking jump, Sindhushree said, “When I cleared the height, I knew my father was supporting me from heaven.” The statement captured the personal significance of the achievement and added a touching dimension to one of the championship’s most memorable performances.
Competing against a strong field, Sindhushree displayed exceptional composure and confidence throughout the event. Her successful clearance at 4.25m represented not only a national milestone but also a breakthrough moment in her own athletic journey. The substantial improvement from her previous best demonstrates the progress she has made and signals the potential for even greater heights in the future.
With the new national record, Asian Games qualification secured, and a place among Asia’s top performers this season, Sindhushree has firmly established herself as one of India’s premier field-event athletes. Her achievement is another significant boost for Indian athletics and highlights the growing strength of pole vaulting in the country.
As preparations begin for future international competitions, Sindhushree G’s historic performance at the Interstate Championships will be remembered as a landmark moment in Indian women’s pole vault history.
Indian pole vault sensation Dev Meena continued his remarkable rise by breaking the men’s national record once again at the 65th Interstate Athletics Championships 2026, clearing 5.46 m to set a new Indian mark.
The performance not only earned Meena another national record but also secured the Asian Games 2026 qualification standard, further cementing his status as one of India’s most exciting field event athletes.
This latest achievement marks Meena’s second consecutive national record-breaking performance, highlighting his rapid progression in the event. Even more remarkably, it is the fifth time the Indian men’s pole vault national record has been improved in less than two years, reflecting the unprecedented growth of the discipline in the country.
Meena’s consistent record-breaking performances have transformed the landscape of Indian pole vaulting. With every competition, the young vaulter continues to push the boundaries of what was once considered possible in Indian athletics.
His 5.46m clearance adds another chapter to what has become a genuine pole vault revolution in India.
For now, the spotlight firmly belongs to Dev Meena, who has once again rewritten the national record books and reaffirmed his position as India’s leading pole vaulter.
Indian athletics witnessed the emergence of a new star as 18-year-old Anushka Yadav delivered a stunning performance at the 65th Interstate Athletics Championships 2026, rewriting the national record in the women’s hammer throw.
Anushka unleashed a massive throw of 65.64m, breaking the previous Indian national record and registering a huge personal best in the process. The remarkable effort also helped her comfortably achieve the qualification standard for the 2026 Asian Games, marking a breakthrough moment in her young career.
The teenager’s record-breaking throw is currently ranked as the 13th-best performance in Asia this season, highlighting her rapid rise among the continent’s top hammer throwers and reinforcing her status as one of India’s most exciting athletics prospects.
The achievement is particularly significant given Anushka’s age. At just 18, she has already entered the national record books while demonstrating the potential to compete at the highest level in Asia.
Her performance was one of the standout moments of the Interstate Championships and provides a major boost to India’s hopes in the women’s hammer throw ahead of the Asian Games cycle.
India’s top pole vaulters will be in action today at 16:30 IST at the Interstate Athletics Championships 2026, with the Asian Games qualification mark on the line.
Elite Line-up:
1⃣ Dev Meena – 5.45m (NR)
2⃣ Kuldeep Yadav – 5.45m (NR)
3⃣ Reegan Ganesh – 5.35m
4⃣ M Gowtham – 5.20m.
In their last competition, both Dev Meena and Kuldeep Yadav broke the national record and now jointly hold it at 5.45m.
The men’s pole vault national record has been improved four times since last season, rising from 5.31m to 5.45m — a remarkable leap for the event in India.
The Asian Games qualification standard also stands at 5.45m, meaning athletes will need to match or better that mark here to secure their ticket to the Games.
What are your predictions?
Can we witness another national record today?
Women’s Triple Jump – 17:55 IST India’s elite women’s triple jumpers will go head-to-head today at the ongoing Interstate Athletics Championships 2026.
Niharika Vashist: Fed Cup champion 2026
• Has produced Country’s best jump this season, 13.64m (PB).
• Moved to No. 5 on India’s all-time list.
Asha Ilango: Opened her season with a PB of 13.52m.
• Jumped 13.67m at the Tamil Nadu State Championships (unofficial).
• Registered 13.57m to win Indian Series–8 in her last competition.
Bhairabi Roy: • Won silver at the Fed Cup with a personal best of 13.28m.
Mallala Anusha: • India’s Indoor Champion.
• Fed Cup bronze medallist with a season best of 13.28m.
The Asian Games qualification standard stands at 13.34m. Asha Ilango and Niharika Vashist have already breached the mark this season. However, they will need to achieve it again here to secure qualification.
By Sundeep Misra
It remains one of the most striking paradoxes of modern Indian sporting culture: how an aerodynamic shaft of cased aluminium, weighing precisely 800 grams, shot into the air, in a complex alignment of biomechanical forces, becomes an object of national aspiration.
Yet, we shouldn’t mistake a national obsession, if it’s an obsession, for a mass phenomenon. One thing is sure – the javelin will never be a recreational pastime in India, just as it never became one in Jan Zelezny’s Czech Republic. In Prague or Ostrava, the collective obsession, pulse of the nation belongs to football; Czechoslovakia stops, breathes, and suffers along with the national team’s journeys, especially during the World Cup.
Similarly, the average American teenager, will never pick up a 7.26kg iron ball in their backyard or try and understand its rotational physics and the personalities of Ryan Crouser or Joe Kovacs. In the United States, American football and basketball dominate the grassroots. Yet, when Crouser steps into the circle on a global stage, Olympics or the World Championships, pride sweeps the country.
Leaving aside tennis to a large extent, a cultural movement in non-team sports will never have millions trying to replicate the act; most Olympic sport is stadium-bound, requiring technical expertise and hours of coach-managed sessions. You can’t just walk into a park and start throwing a discus, shotput, javelin or a hammer. Mass participation is never the key, it’s always projection.
It’s important to understand how different societies adopt their solitary icons. Consider Morocco, a nation intoxicated by football, where children grow up worshiping Achraf Hakimi. Yet, Soufiane El Bakkali and Hicham El Guerrouj and Saïd Aouita before him occupy a distinct but different sacred tier of iconography. Moroccan parents or even their sports administrators do not expect the youth to walk away from the football pitch for the lung-burners of the middle, long distance and the 3000m steeplechase. But Bakkali is revered, a massive figure in the Moroccan sports firmament as the man, athlete, warrior who dismantled East African distance running dominance on his own terms; that back-of-the-pack running, chewing up each athlete as he slices his way up to the front of the pack and top of the podium.
The same mechanism works in the global cycling landscape. In Slovenia, football and basketball pull the largest grassroots numbers. Yet, Tadej Pogačar’s historic, yellow-jersey-clad conquests across the alpine peaks of France have turned a gruelling, elite endurance sport into a cornerstone of Slovenian national and cultural identity. Not every Slovenian citizen needs to burst his arteries and climb the mountain passes to claim ownership of Pogačar’s triumph.
Closer home, in the sugarcane belts of western Uttar Pradesh, the suburbs of Meerut, households don’t send their daughters to run barefoot to master the steeplechase water jump. The technicalities of tracking Parul Chaudhary’s training splits are left to the purists. But when she snatched an Asian Games gold in the 5000m in Hangzhou and a silver in the 3000m steeplechase, the region celebrated, pride filling the bylanes of Meerut. Parul’s achievements will not trigger every girl to run on to the synthetic tracks, but it does alter the social imaginary of what a girl from Meerut can achieve.
Olympic sport, especially in India, relies on a rarefied tier of global success. An Olympic gold counts, a World Championship title cements it, and consistent podium finishes across the globe finally make an Indian feel proud that something apart from the swing of a willow bat is making international headlines.
But what truly illustrates it is Neeraj Chopra’s subversion of the typical Indian sporting celebrity archetype. In a landscape where self-glorification is often treated as a sport in itself, be it the athlete, administrator or even the media, Chopra’s deliberate “invisibility”, his aversion to constant validation makes him a fascinating subject. His instinct to “slink back into the shadows” after a monumental effort creates a cultural scarcity. By refusing to feed the beast of public attention, he, knowingly or unknowingly heightens our hunger to watch him compete or understand him inside or outside of his athletic domain.
We don’t know what he will do now, following his fourth-place finish in his recent comeback and successfully securing his Commonwealth Games qualification. Having cleared the selection benchmark with a stable 85.69m throw, the pressure is off. The ‘predictable’ Chopra could easily retreat to his isolated European training base to protect his recovering back and fine-tune his rhythm away from the domestic circus.
Unless, of course, he decides to walk out onto the runway at the upcoming Inter-State Athletics Championships at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. Should he choose to compete at The Kalinga, it will transform a domestic selection trial into a jamboree.
The stadium will not fill up with people who want to pick up a javelin. It will fill up with people who are simply grateful that an athlete of his stature belongs to them. The aluminium spear will always be an elite, solitary, technical, intriguing piece of Olympic equipment. But the pride around it will be collective proving that the javelin outside of the stadium is now an unshakeable piece of our national conversation.
By Sushant Singh
India’s golden boy Neeraj Chopra made a solid return to competition, opening his 2026 season with a best throw of 85.69m to finish fourth at the Doha Diamond League.
Competing for the first time in 274 days since the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Chopra showed encouraging signs despite facing a world-class field featuring several 90m throwers.
The Indian star began his campaign with a foul before quickly settling into rhythm. He breached the Commonwealth Games 2026 qualification standard of 82.61m with his second attempt of 82.77m and later improved to 85.69m in the third round, which currently stands as the best throw by an Indian javelin thrower this season.
His series: X, 82.77m, 85.69m, 83.45m, X
Chopra took only five attempts, as only the top three athletes after five rounds were awarded a sixth and final throw.
While Chopra narrowly missed the Top 3, the outing marked an important step in his comeback and provided valuable competition exposure ahead of a packed season that includes the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
Meanwhile, 23-year-old Sri Lankan sensation Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage continued his stunning 2026 season, defeating an elite javelin field to win the Doha Diamond League with a massive 88.68m throw, produced in the fourth round. Anderson Peters finished second with 86.38m, while Curtis Thompson took third place with 85.99m.
Olympic and World Champion Neeraj Chopra will finally make his comeback tomorrow at the Doha Diamond League 2026.
Speaking ahead of the Doha Diamond League at the pre-event press conference, Chopra opened up about his injury struggles, coaching transition, future plans, and expectations from a packed 2026 season that includes the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
The Indian javelin star said the decision to compete in Doha was made only after successfully completing his rehabilitation process. Chopra revealed that he had been dealing with injuries since before last year’s Tokyo World Championships and only resumed throwing around six weeks ago.
“I had some injury before Tokyo. We worked a lot on recovery. In an athlete’s life, when you try to save one injury, sometimes another problem appears. I had issues with my ankle and shoulder as well. We started throwing one-and-a-half months ago and decided to compete in Doha only after my final training session,” he said.
Doha holds special memories for Chopra, who crossed the coveted 90-metre mark for the first time at the venue last year. However, the 27-year-old believes that historic throw was not technically his best effort.
“Technically that throw was not that good. It was very fast from the arm, but if I had used my lower body better, maybe it could have gone two or three metres farther,” he explained.
Chopra also offered insight into his split with Jan Železný, under whom he achieved several milestones, including his first 90m throw. While expressing gratitude towards the three-time Olympic champion, Chopra said he felt the need to return to a more familiar training environment.
“Jan was a great athlete and a great coach. I’m happy that I broke 90 metres with him. But after Tokyo, I felt I needed to work more with my own ideas. Now I’m working with my first coach, Jaiveer Chaudhary. He has known me for 15-16 years and understands my journey from the beginning.”
The reigning world champion stressed that the current focus is not on major technical changes but rather on refining the style that originally made him successful. He is currently training under Jaiveer Chaudhary, his first coach and the first person who put a spear in his hand.
“I’m working on my natural technique. We are not doing anything very deep or complicated. We are focusing on what came naturally to me when I started throwing.”
Jaiveer himself is a former javelin thrower who competed alongside Neeraj and was his senior on the domestic circuit.
Looking ahead to the Commonwealth Games, Chopra predicted one of the strongest javelin competitions in recent history. With several Commonwealth athletes already throwing beyond 90 metres, he expects the event to rival even the biggest global championships.
Looking at the potential javelin field, the competition is shaping up to be one of the strongest ever:
Keshorn Walcott – 90.16m (PB)
Julius Yego – 92.72m
Rumesh Tharanga – 92.62m (WL)
Anderson Peters – 93.07m
Arshad Nadeem – 92.97m
Neeraj Chopra – 90.23m
Douw Smit – 84.57m
Keyshawn Strachan – 84.27m
Sumeda Ranasinghe – 85.78m
“Commonwealth will be not less than maybe the Olympics or World Championships. It will be a really tough competition,” Chopra said, referring to rivals such as Arshad Nadeem, Anderson Peters, Keshorn Walcott and Sri Lanka’s emerging star Rumesh Tharanga, who currently leads the world this season with a lifetime best throw of 92.62m.
The Indian ace also confirmed that the Asian Games remain firmly in his plans later this season.
Chopra was full of praise for Tharanga, who has emerged as one of the breakthrough performers in men’s javelin this year and holds the world-leading mark of 92.62m this season. He owns four of the world’s best throws in 2026:
92.62m (World Lead), 89.37m, 89.28m and 86.57m.
Even more impressively, five of the top 10 throws recorded worldwide in 2026 belong to Rumesh.
“He’s a really good guy and a good friend of mine. I’m very happy for him and for Sri Lanka. What he has achieved is amazing.”
Beyond competition, Chopra discussed the future of the Neeraj Chopra Classic, India’s first major athlete-led javelin event. Encouraged by a crowd of nearly 15,000 spectators at the inaugural edition, he hinted that future editions could expand beyond javelin.
“We didn’t expect so many people to come. In the future, maybe we can add more events. My team is working on different ideas, and we’ll announce them when everything is finalized.”
With a fresh coaching setup, renewed fitness, and major championships on the horizon, Chopra appears eager to begin a new chapter in his career while staying true to the fundamentals that made him one of the world’s greatest javelin throwers.
