Balwan patra

Khelo India University Games: Reigning Asian champion high-jumper Pooja underlined the Khelo India University Games (KIUG) 2025 as the perfect springboard for her return to competition, breaking the meet record with a 1.77m effort to clinch gold in her maiden appearance in the athletics competition of the event for youngsters.

Competing at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium, the 18-year-old looked assured in her first outing after an ankle injury kept her out for nearly five months, using the event to recalibrate before shifting her attention to the far bigger target, the 2026 Asian Games.

Earlier this year, the 18-year-old had scripted history by becoming only the second Indian woman after Bobby Aloysius to win the Asian Championship high jump gold, scaling a personal best of 1.89 metres. Born to a mason in Boston village in Haryana’s Fatehabad district, Pooja had been recovering from the injury she sustained during training, a setback that forced her out of action for nearly five months and halted her momentum after a breakthrough 2024–25.