Dev Kumar Meena cleared 5.46m to breach the Asian Games qualification mark at the Senior Inter-State Athletics Championships. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR

Dev Kumar Meena continued his remarkable rise in Indian pole vault by breaking the men’s national record again at the Inter-State Athletics Championships 2026 in Bhubaneswar.

Competing at the Kalinga Stadium, Dev cleared 5.46m to improve the national mark and also breach the qualification standard for the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

The clearance came barely a month after he and Kuldeep Kumar had shared the national record with identical 5.45m efforts at the Federation Cup in Ranchi.

This was Dev’s second consecutive national record-breaking performance and underlined the rapid improvement in Indian men’s pole vault, with the national mark being bettered five times in less than two years.

The performance also strengthens Dev’s case for selection to the Asian Games squad, with the Inter-State Championships serving as an important qualification meet for Indian athletes. For a discipline that had long struggled to push past older benchmarks, Dev’s 5.46m clearance marks another significant step forward.

Published on Jun 24, 2026