
India ended the World Athletics U20 Championships in Oregon with three medals, equalling their 2021 and 2022 hauls. High jumper Pooja Singh, the national senior record holder, finished seventh, clearing only 1.84m,…
India ended the World Athletics U20 Championships in Oregon with three medals, equalling their 2021 and 2022 hauls. High jumper Pooja Singh, the national senior record holder, finished seventh, clearing only 1.84m, far below her 1.93m record. The women's 4x400m relay team finished ninth. India's silver medals came from Ashish Yadav (men's javelin) and Basant Kumar Meghwal (men's high jump), while Shahnavaz Khan won bronze in the men's long jump. Pooja, 19, had won gold at the Asian U20 Championships in May. The United States won the relay gold.

The media will frame Pooja's seventh place as a failure, but she is 19 and holds the senior national record. The real story is India's steady improvement at the junior level, three medals for the third time in five editions. Yet without a gold, the question remains: can these youngsters, like Meghwal and Ashish Yadav, step up to win senior medals? The 2028 Olympics will be the test.
Sources (3): thehindu.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com, newindianexpress.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 3 sources.