Anuskha yadav

State Senior Athletics Championships: Extraordinary performances by three talented athletes---pole vaulter Dev Meena, teenage hammer thrower Anuskha Yadav, and sprinter-cum-hurdler Jyothi Yarraji---further brightened Bhubaneswar’s floodlit Kalinga Stadium on the opening day of the 65th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships on Wednesday.

The three extraordinary performances were the highlights of the evening session of the meet, which started on an exciting note, as several athletes achieved qualification marks in their respective events for the 2026 Asian Games to be held at Aichi–Nagoya in Japan.

Dev Meena, representing Madhya Pradesh, raised the bar to 5.46m, which was better than his own national record, jointly held with training partner Kuldeep Kumar. His Wednesday’s performance was also better than the Asian Games qualification mark of 5.45m.