Bhubaneswar, March 24 Exactly 10 years ago, Baranica Elangovan was wondering whether her slender frame would be able to carry a heavy pole, but heeding 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 at 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 looking for 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 looking for a female athlete for pole vault.
"I was like, I can't run with a pole. The pole will be heavy. I am very slender, and how can you think I can run with a pole? I was saying that," she said. "She told me to meet Milber."
Baranica eventually went to meet Milber, and she immediately fell in love with pole vault.
"I was seeing a senior doing pole vault. I thought, wow, I want to do it. It 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 scratch. 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 her training base from Chennai to Bhubaneswar helped Baranica.
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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 figured out what was working for me, and it's really helpful. The physiotherapists 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 things."
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 struggle with that. And the take-off will also 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 1000 times. But we worked on that."
She said training with a physiotherapist 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 into place today," said Baranica, whose earlier personal best was 4.15m recorded in 2024.