Driven up a pole at airports, rail stations, Dev Meena vaults unto new National Record at Federation Cup 2025

The Hindu

22-04-2025

On Tuesday evening, shortly after the conclusion of the medal ceremony of the men's pole vault competition at the Federation Cup, Ghanshyam Yadav, coach of the gold medal winner Dev Meena, got a call from Yashodhara Raje Scindia. He put the call on speaker phone only to show how deeply interested the former sports minister of Madhya Pradesh was in the performance of Dev Meena who had just won gold in the competition.
That decision turned out to be an unexpectedly embarrassing moment for the coach as Scindia gave him a public dressing down apparently on account of Dev posting a picture on social media right after his event. According to her, Dev needed to stay away from his mobile phone on the day of his event.
' Ji Maharaj ji' Ghanshyam mumbled next to an equally sheepish Dev.
Dev Meena, pole vaulter, alongside coach Ghanshyam Yadav (right). | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
That was probably Dev's most uncomfortable moment at the Maharaja's College stadium ground in Kochi. During the competition, the 20-year-old needed only six jumps, not just to sail over the rest of the field but also set a new National Record of 5.35m – erasing his own mark of 5.32m set just last month at the National Games.
Grateful to have a former Minister in own corner
But for all the lectures they might have received, both Dev and his coach would admit they are rather grateful to have the former Minister, who still takes a keen interest in sports, in their corner. 'Wherever I am is because of the support that we have got from the Madhya Pradesh Sports department,' says Dev who was one of the first inductees when coach Ghanshyam started his pole vault coaching program at Bhopal's Tatya Tope Stadium five years back.
It helps to have friends in high places when it comes to an event like the pole vault. It isn't particularly the competition but the work it takes to get to an event that is the most challenging.
Dev says as much when asked what the hardest part of Indian pole vaulting is.
'The hardest thing is to travel with your poles by train and aeroplane,' he says.
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While he might be India's national record holder, Dev says his 20 foot long fiberglass poles always end up drawing unwanted attention whenever he is travelling with them for a competition. 'If you are on a flight, the attendants want to know what it is. I have to explain that it is a sports equipment and that I have all the details. Despite that they raise a lot of objections especially since the equipment is so long,' he says.
Dev says there was one time when an airline flatly refused to let him carry his poles on an international flight when he was travelling for the junior world championships in Peru last year. 'Every other athlete was able to bring their poles but I wasn't. Ultimately I was forced to use poles provided by the competition but I didn't get the same result,' he says.
As such, while the Madhya Pradesh government sends all their athletes by flights to domestic competitions like the Federation Cup, coach Ghanshyam travels with the poles for his team – some 10 in all – in a train since they are easier to fit inside a compartment and there's a better chance that they will be able to carry them in the first case.
A better chance doesn't mean a guarantee that he will be able to travel with the poles on a train either. 'We have to place them above the fans on the roof of the train compartment and both the passengers and the TTE (Traveling ticket examiner) almost always has some problem with them as well. He is always suspicious of what they are and whether there is anything inside them. They'll ask 10 questions and still not be satisfied,' says Ghanshyam.
The poles often have to be placed above the fans on the roof of the train compartment. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
One such case happened last year when he was travelling for a competition from Lucknow and the TTE refused to let him travel with his poles, forcing him to disembark from the train despite having a valid ticket.
But when incidents such as these take place, it's the people in charge of Madhya Pradesh Sports who end up making things right.
'Whenever I face a problem like this, I will usually just call the minister and say 'Maharaj ji, the TTE is troubling us. Then in no time a call will go through to the DRM (Deputy Regional Manager) of the Railways. There was another time when our poles were stuck at an airport and Jyotiraditya Scindia (Minister for Civil Aviation) put word to let the pole go through,' says Ghanshyam.
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While travel with poles from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh is still easier, journeying with equipment from other states still almost always requires the intervention of higher ups, says Dev. It's a situation that often leaves Dev wondering about the rest of his competitors. 'I am lucky because our Minister is taking a direct involvement with us. We can call the Sports Incharge and also the minister at any time of the day and they are available, but I sometimes wonder how other athletes from other states manage,' he says.
Indeed while they likely did struggle, coach Ghanshyam says that apart from a few raised eyebrows from fellow passengers, there was little difficulty in bringing Dev's poles from Bhopal to Kochi.
Ample support
The support Dev is getting isn't of course just limited to getting his poles on trains. Three months ago, the MP government provided a Cuban pole vault coach – former Pan American champion Angel Garcia -- to help Dev get even better. 'Ever since the Cuban coach has arrived, we have started working on our technique. One thing we noticed is that the technique we were using is for a very hard pole. But we needed to adapt our training to a more flexible pole. When we started doing that, we made the move to 5.35 very smoothly and we can probably do more also,' Ghanshyam says.
Dev cleared 5.35m with plenty of room to spare in just his first attempt at that jump. He says he would have likely attempted a higher jump too but for a passing shower that left the track a little slippery. 'I think I have done enough to clear 5.40m but I didn't want to risk any injury. I don't think 5.50 will be too hard for me to do as well,' he says.
While his reasons for not going for the jump he thinks he is capable of are understandable, what it meant is that while Dev might have set a new National Record, he is still short of the Athletics Federation of India's qualifying mark of 5.51m in order to compete at next month's Asian Championships.
It's a situation, Dev says he's disappointed with. ' I wish the qualification standard for the Asian Championships was 10 centimeters lower. Because I could at least set that as a target when I come for this competition,' he says. At the same point he's thinking of other competitions – he's setting his sights on the World University Games in July.
Dev and his coach Ghanshyam say they will prepare as best as they can for that competition. For now there's a more immediate task. 'We have to take all our poles back from Kochi to Bhopal in two days' time. I hope there won't be any trouble with that,' says Ghanshyam.