Laxmipriya kisan

National Junior Athletics Championships: Haryana’s promising teenager, Pooja, continued to hog the limelight as she improved on the national record in the U18 women's heptathlon in the ongoing 39th National Junior Athletics Championships at Kalinga Stadium here on Wednesday.

The day after she improved her own national U18 women’s high jump record to 1.85 on the opening day of the heptathlon event, Pooja clinched the gold medal in the multi-discipline event with a national record. Pooja’s point tally of 5102 points was better than the previous national record of 4357 points set by R. Khatun in 2024. With the gold medal in the heptathlon, Pooja’s gold tally has swelled to two. She is also the winner of U18 women’s high jump gold.

Telangana’s Sriteja Tholem also improved the previous national record (5087 points) but had to settle for second place. Haryana’s Khushi won bronze with a tally of 4350 points.