Bhubaneswar, Mar 24 (PTI) Exactly 10 years ago, Baranica Elangovan was wondering whether her lean frame would be able to carry a heavy pole but heeding to the advice of her college teacher turned out to be a wise decision as she smashed the national record here on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old Baranica, a three-time national outdoor champion from Tamil Nadu, cleared 4.22m to better the earlier women’s pole vault national record of 4.21m, which has been in the name of Rosy Meena Paulraj since 2022.
Baranica’s mark will now be the national indoor as well as the overall record, and it will just be a formality for the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to ratify it.
But she was in two minds when the physical education director of Ethiraj College in Chennai told her to take up pole vault and meet coach Milber Bertrand Russell. That was in 2016.
She eventually heeded the advice and chose to continue working with Russell, with whom she has remained associated ever since.
“I was studying in Ethiraj College. Initially I was not planning to do pole vault. I like to do jumps. I was very much into triple jump. So I was in search of a coach,” said Baranica who hails from Mayiladuthurai, south of Chennai.
“Because Chennai was new to me, I approached my physical education director Uma Devi. She recommended me to do pole vault. She said Milber was searching for a female athlete for pole vault.
“I was like, I can’t run with a pole. Pole will be heavy. I am very lean and how can you think I can run with a pole? I was saying like that. She told me to meet Milber.” Baranica eventually went to meet Milber and she immediately fell in love with pole vault.
“I was seeing one senior doing pole vault. I was like, wow, I want to do it. That was so exciting to see. So, that’s how it started. That was in 2016.
“I was not fit enough. I was only 42kg at that time. It took me three years to build my own thing. I started from zero. Coach Milber shaped me. Today I am here because of him,” said Baranica about her coach.
“He has been with me all the time, during my struggling days.” Milber is originally from Nagarcoil in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu but he has settled in Chennai with his family.
Shifting training base from Chennai to Bhubaneswar helped Baranica ========================================== Baranica, who is currently with the Reliance Foundation High Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar after shifting base from Chennai in 2023, has made a remarkable comeback from an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery on her left leg in 2020.
She said she benefitted from Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance (ABTP) centre at the Kalinga Stadium complex during her rehabilitation.
“Actually after coming here (Bhubaneswar), we kind of sorted out the thing which was working for me and it’s really helpful. The physios at the ABTP centre are really helpful. They have technology and advanced machines.
“It took me three years to understand my own thing on the runway and everything. And, finally, we set the pace for the basic thing.” Talking about refining her runway approach and making adjustments to her technique, she said, “We used to have the high carry (of the pole). After that the approach will be easier. And most of the athletes will be struggling in that only. And take-off also will be up and down.
“You have to prepare yourself mentally and physically. It’s not easy to pick up things. Even a minor change can affect you mentally. You need to practice a 1000 times. But we worked on that.” She said training with a physio also helped, apart from the top-class infrastructure available in Bhubaneswar.
“I was attempting to break the national record in the last three years but everything fell in place today,” said Baranica whose earlier personal best was 4.15m recorded in 2024. PTI PDS PDS AM AM
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