India’s Krishna Jayasankar has delivered a landmark performance in women’s shot put, registering a lifetime best throw of 17.09 metres — breaching the 17-metre mark for the very first time in her career.
The effort earned her a silver medal at the Mountain West Indoor Championships, marking a major milestone in her steady rise.
Her 17.09m throw now stands as India’s best mark of 2025 so far, and the second-best performance by an Indian since 2024.
Only the outdoor national record of 18.41 metres held by Abha Khatua surpasses this distance.
Significantly, this performance also marks Krishna’s third consecutive personal best — underlining her rapid progression — and establishes a new indoor national record for India.
A breakthrough moment that signals both consistency and growing promise on the international stage.
Last season proved to be a rollercoaster for Abdulla — a campaign filled with both breakthrough highs and near-miss heartbreaks.
He began on a strong note, striking gold at the Taiwan Athletics Meet, where he stood out as the only triple jumper to breach the 16-metre mark — a statement performance on the international stage.
But the margins of elite sport can be brutally fine.
At the Asian Championships, Abdulla narrowly missed out on the bronze medal by just 0.10 metres — a result that underlined both his competitiveness and the heartbreak of coming so close.
Back home, consistency followed.
He secured silver at the Federation Cup, before delivering one of the standout performances of his season at the Indian Open Jumps Competition — clinching gold with a massive 17.19-metre leap.
That jump was particularly significant, marking his second 17-metre-plus effort in the past two-and-a-half years — reaffirming his ability to compete at the highest level.
However, the season ended on a challenging note, as Abdulla fell short of qualifying for the final at the World Championships.
A year of promise, resilience, and lessons — Abdulla’s journey last season reflected both the rewards and realities of competing at the top tier of global athletics.
medal in the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.73 seconds (the same time he clocked in the heats) at the Big Sky Championships 2026.
Michael Khmel – High-performance sprint & relay coach – Worked with UK Athletics & elite Olympic relay programs.
Karl Günter Lange – World Athletics senior coach educator – Specialist in middle & long-distance development systems – Built coaching structures across 40+ countries
Pavana Nagraj finished 6th at the Big 12 Indoor Athletics Championships, registering a best attempt of 6.30m while representing Oklahoma State University.
Representing Kansas State University, Maud Zeffou and Chisom Nwafor secured 1st and 2nd place, respectively, both recording lifetime best jumps of 6.62m and 6.51m.
Pradeep Senthilkumar also qualified for the 800m final at the same meet, finishing 2nd in his respective heat with a time of 1:51.68s.
Madhvendra Singh Shekhawat, representing Eastern Washington University, clocked 7.75s, the fastest time across both heats, to qualify for the 60m Hurdles final at the Big Sky Indoor Championship.
Madhvendra, who jointly holds India’s 60m H national record of 7.64s with Tejas Shirse, will be in action at 5:50 AM IST tomorrow in the 60m Hurdles final at the Big Sky Indoor Championship.
This is the first time they are all competing in the Marathon Racewalk event.
Ram Baboo adapted very well and won the gold medal 
in his opening competition of the 2026 season, while 2022 Commonwealth Games medalist Sandeep Kumar finished second.
Himanshu Rathi (Junior 1500m silver medallist) ➝ 3-year ban from 20 November 2025.
Basanti Kumari (2025 Open Athletics silver medallist) ➝ 3-year ban from 7 November 2025.
Balvindra Singh (2025 Indian Open gold medallist) ➝ 5-year ban from 19 September 2025 (multiple prohibited substances).
Shashi Bhushan Singh (2023 National Games 1500m silver medallist) ➝ 3-year ban from 19 September 2025.
All four athletes admitted the violations, leading to reduction in sanctions.
This is now the second-fastest marathon time ever recorded in India after Shivnath Singh.
Shivnath Singh – 2:12:00 (NR) | Jalandhar, 1978.
Kartik Karkera – 2:13:10 | New Delhi, 2026.
Kartik clocked a personal best of 2:13:10 at the New Delhi Marathon and also breached the Asian Games qualification mark.
