With silver in the women’s pole vault at the 2025 Asian Championships going at 4.23m and bronze at the 2022 Asian Games being won at 4.30m, even a mark of 4.25m should keep her in contention for a podium finish at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya. | Photo Credit: BISWARANJAN ROUT

With a tiny picture of her deceased father tucked inside her kitbag for motivation, a pole borrowed from a friend in her hands and fortified with not much more than the will to prove herself, G Sindhushree produced the performance of her lifetime setting a new national record in the women’s pole vault competition at the Inter State National Championships.

Her leap of 4.25m, broke the standing Indian record of 4.23m and was a 20 centimeter improvement on her previous personal best. Perhaps more significant was what the result meant. She had met the qualification standard of 4.10m for the Asian Games and will be on the plane to Nagoya in September.

ALSO READ | Torn ACL to Asiad — Yarraji back to winning ways

Her victory sealed, the 25-year-old held between her fingers, a frayed passport-sized photograph of her father Ganesh.

“From my childhood, my father was the one who supported my dream to be an athlete. His dream was always that I would wear the India jersey one day. He passed away in 2022 never getting the chance to see me wear it. I know he would be proud of me today. I know he will be watching me now,” she says.

Growing up in the town of Shimoga in Karnataka, it was Ganesh who had encouraged her to dream.

“He was the one who took me to train. He would wake me up in the morning to take me to the playground. He was the one who encouraged me when people in my town discouraged me,” she remembers.

A track athlete in her early days, Sindhushree eventually made her way from Shimoga to the Sports Authority of India Center in Bengaluru. It was there that she shifted from the quartermile to the pole vault.

She had some skill but wasn’t considered a standout performer when she started training with coach Vijeesh Kumar in 2021. He himself was starting his career as a coach then.

ALSO READ | Neeraj Chopra: Wouldn’t have accepted fourth-place finish before but satisfied with Doha result

“Sindhushree is someone who has been overlooked for most of her life. She’s fast but doesn’t have the right build. She’s only 157 cm (five foot two). That’s very small for a pole vaulter,” he tells Sportstar.

She also didn’t have the right resources. Money has always been tight for Sindhushree. Her father had supported her with his job as an electrician in Shimoga but suddenly passed away due to a heart attack in 2022. That same year, she was dropped from the National Center in Bengaluru due to a string of poor performances.

While her mother worked as a tailor in Shimoga to provide for herself and Sindhushree’s younger sister, there was certainly not enough to let Sindhushree train in Bengaluru while renting a hsotel room outside the Sports Authority of India campus.

In desperation, Sindhushree made a bargain with her grandfather. “I asked that he support me for just one more year and if I couldn’t make anything of my career as a sportsperson then, I’d come back to Shimoga,” she recalls.

At the end of that year, Sindhushree has her first taste of success, winning a silver at the Inter State Championships, incidentally at the very same Kalinga Stadium where she qualified for the Asian Games on Thursday.

But while that medal bought her a bit more support from her family. It only went so far. For many years, Sindhusree’s career seemed to stagnate as she struggled to improve on the 3.80m she jumped for her silver in 2023.

The reason for that was literally out of her hands.

No pole

The fiberglass pole which catapults jumpers over the bar, is a critical piece of equipment. Poles are rated by the height jumpers can attain on them. Shorter, less stiff poles are cheaper and a lot more forgiving for beginners technique. But to jump higher heights, jumpers need to run in with greater speed, putting more power into their poles. They need stiffer poles rated to a higher height. These are a lot more expensive.

“She needed a pole rated to 4.50m if she wanted to cross 4m. But each of these poles costs over INR 1 lakh rupees. At that point of time, Sindhushree was just about getting enough money to survive in Bengaluru. She didn’t even have a job,” says Vijeesh.

There was little choice but to continue jumping with what she had. The results were as expected. For a few years since that 2023 Inter State silver, Sindhushree didn’t medal at a single national event. Her personal best of 3.80m improved by just 10cm by 2025.

Two months ago though, she finally caught a break.

A training partner had bought a pole for himself rated to 4.45m. However, he had accidentally bought one built for women athletes. Unable to use them, he lent them to Sindhushree.

As the missing puzzle piece fell in place, Sindhushree finally started getting the results she had prepared for. She jumped 4m for the first time at the India Open Athletics Series in Chennai in May. And then at the Kalinga Stadium, she made her biggest improvement yet.

ALSO READ | Dev Meena clears 5.46m to set new pole vault national record, achieves Asian Games qualification

With silver in the women’s pole vault at the 2025 Asian Championships going at 4.23m and bronze at the 2022 Asian Games being won at 4.30m, even a mark of 4.25m should keep her in contention for a podium finish at the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya.

But after clearing her height of 4.25m in her very first attempt, it seems likely that Sindhushree is capable of even bigger jumps. Coach Vijeesh certainly thinks so.

“Even right now we aren’t able to put all of her power into the pole when she jumps because even the pole she’s using right now is a little soft. She can take a 16-step run up but we had to shorten it to 14 steps because even this pole isn’t stiff enough to take that kind of power. She has everything she needs to make even bigger jumps. She just needs a better pole and more people who believe in her,” he says.

For now even with her borrowed pole, Sindhushree says she will do the best she can.

“I will fight to get on the podium at the Asian Games. I have come so far. I will do my best to make my father proud,” she says.

Published on Jun 25, 2026