A 5-meter pole. A bending fiberglass stick. And one Indian kid from Madhya Pradesh quietly rewriting history.
Dev Meena just did it again.
At the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, he soared over 5.46 meters — breaking his own national record.
Again.
That's the 6th time in 16 months he's torn up the Indian pole vault record book. ⚡
His first attempt? Failed.
Second attempt? Failed.
Everyone else had already bowed out. The wind wasn't cooperating.
So Dev did something most athletes don't have the nerve to do.
He waited.
Changed his run-up. Paused for the wind to die down. Took a breath.
And flew.
"I knew I could hit the mark if I got the right conditions," he said.
Then he walked off. Didn't even attempt a higher bar. Mission accomplished.
Here's the part that should make every Indian sports fan sit up.
No Indian pole vaulter has competed at the Asian Games since 1986 — the Seoul edition.
Forty years. An entire generation.
And the AFI made it brutal this cycle:
Dev didn't just beat it. He rewrote it. Again.
Behind every record, there's usually someone breathing down your neck.
For Dev, that someone is Kuldeep — the former national record holder.
Since January, these two have:
"We're both going for higher marks. It pushes me when I know Kuldeep will hit a certain number," Dev said.
Kuldeep had an off day in Bhubaneswar. Dev's response wasn't to celebrate — it was to text him: we've got more competitions, we'll do this together.
Years ago, when Dev was just a teenager picking up a pole, his coach Ghanshyam Yadav told him something wild.
"One day, we will qualify for the Asian Games."
Dev's friends laughed.
Nobody's laughing now.
Indian pole vault — dormant for four decades — is suddenly the most exciting story in the country's track and field calendar.
And a kid from MP just turned a coach's promise into a national record.
Six times over.
That's all for now!
