“We had the 5.50m mark in mind when we came here. We went for that but I’m glad that our boys could improve the national record,” said Ghanshyam Yadav, the coach who trains both athletes.

Training together and competing against each other have made both better at their craft.

“It is a privilege to compete together. We have been competing together since we were kids. We have been competing since we used to jump 4.50 or 4.60m,” Dev said after the event.

The duo has been in the spotlight since last year and have improved the national record three times this year much like the sprint duo of Gurindervir Singh and Animesh Kujur.

Takes two to tango

One of the reasons Indian pole vaulters are improving is the competition. “We are seeing so many kids who are doing 5.20m at the junior level. Earlier, this was not the case. For the longest time, we had 5.30m as the national record,” explained Ghanshyam.

While Dev has been training with Ghanshyam since he was a kid, Kuldeep joined him last year.

“Kuldeep was not finding any academy to train at and when he asked me, I said yes. I have two kinds of vaulters now. Dev is speedy while Kuldeep is a power vaulter. It is good to train them together. Both are of the same age and I find it easy to instruct them together,” he said.

They push each other constantly. Dev said he likes Kuldeep’s competitive mindset while Kuldeep said that he likes Dev’s technical ability.

Both of them have breached the qualification mark for the Commonwealth Games but it will now depend on the selection committee who they choose in the event.

Medallists:

Men’s: Long Jump: Sreeshankar Murali (8.08m), Lokesh Satyanathan (7.94m), Md Atta Sazid (7.90m); High Jump: Sarvesh Anil Kushare (2.28m), Aadarsh Ram (2.22m), Sudeep (2.12m); 110m hurdles: Tejas Shirse (13.50s), Krishik M (13.52s), Md Lazan (13.83s)

Pritish Raj works with sports team at The Indian Express' and is based out of New Delhi. ... Read More

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