From choosing high jump as her event only in 2019 and practising on sacks filled with stubble for initial years, the 18-year-old Pooja Singh reaped right rewards for her toil on Friday with a gold medal in the Asian Athletics Championships here.

Pooja, jumped to her personal best of 1.89m in women’s high jump to win the gold medal, said it wasn’t an easy ride for her to win the first medal at the senior level but it was indeed the reward for her toil.

“I started in 2017 and till 2019 I was doing yoga and gymnastics, I have took part in multiple events as well. In 2019, I selected high jump and I have reached here after a lot of hard work and struggles,” Pooja told the media in an interaction organised by Athletics Federation of India.

Pooja said practicing on sacks filled with stubble was the method which helped her break the national record at U-16 level.

“When I started high jump I did not have a mat, I would practice on sacks filled with parali (stubble),” she said.

“I did that for 2-3 years before I got an old mat and with practicing on that I made the U-16 record (1.76m) and since then the improvement has been there, in U-18, and now in U-20 which I am currently in. Both my coach and I had the confidence of doing well in high jump,” Pooja added.

Talking about her medal winning performance, Pooja said, “The competition was very good, my body was functioning very well. I almost cleared the record of 1.92m but missed by a little margin but 1.89m is my personal best and I was able to record that..

The Haryana girl, who is the youngest in the Indian touring party, said she is having her share of fun being the junior most while being focussed on her sport..

“I am the youngest in the team and I am enjoying it, I am having fun out here as well as focussing on my game. My target is to qualify for the next Olympics and win the gold medal,” she said.

Nandini Agasara, who clinched the gold medal in heptathlon, said she experienced pain in her elbow from a past injury during the javelin throw of 34.18m..

“I thought I would throw 38-40m but unfortunately I felt pain. After the four events yesterday I started feeling the pain in the elbow," Nandini said..

“I had an injury one year ago and I thought it had been cured. I had gone to the national camp where they had help me to cure it. But again after shot-put (throw), in which I had to put in more power, I again felt a little pain and after taping it I thought it would not be there. But after the first throw I felt the pain.”.

Nandini added, “I was leading with good points after long jump, I thought I will maintain the lead but unfortunately could not do well in the javelin throw but I covered it in the 800m.”.

Nandini said she was under pressure after an ordinary throw but the coaching staff helped her to put a strong show thereon. “I was under a little pressure after javelin throw because the girl from China was leading by 70 points,” she said..

“All the coaches supported and motivated me and I used that to make myself confident to win the gold for India and I recorded my best points after a long time. My first goal was to break the national record of 6200 points. I thought I would cross that in this competition but because of the javelin throw I could not,” Nandini added.

Gulveer Singh, who won the gold medal in 5000m after a similar success in 10,000m, said the focus was only on winning the medal and not the timing.

“The goal was to win the gold medal in 10km and in 5km race, the timing was not an issue. The coaches said we will address the timing in the next competition but I have to win the gold in this competition. The World Championships are up next and I will make progress for that,” he said.

Jyothi Yarraji, who won the gold medal in women’s 100m hurdles, said she wanted to better the personal record. “I came here totally fit and there are no complaints. I tried to do a personal best but that did not happen,” she said..

The silver medal winner in women’s 3000m steeplechase Parul Chaudhary broke her national record in 10 days’ time said trying to stay alongside Kazakhstan’s Norah Jeruto helped her better it.

“Yes, I came into this competition with that thought in mind. I knew that the 2022 World Champion is here and I thought if I’d run with her, my timings would be good,” she said.

Avinash Sable, the first Indian to win a steeplechase gold in 36 years, said his training is going in the right direction. "I was injured in the last two events in competed in. I was practicing in Ooty but could not do the hurdles because of the injury," he said.

"I then had two competitions — Diamond League and Asian Championships — but they were too close and I decided to do one. I came here to build the confidence that the training I am doing is in the right direction," he added.

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