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Southern Railways’ KP Bimin set a new national record in pole-vault, scaling 5.13m to break Vijay Pal Singh’s record of 5.10m set way back in 1987, in the ongoing All-India Inter-Railways athletics meet at the Tatya Tope Stadium here on Thursday. Bimin competed with two poles he had borrowed from his friend.
“There is no one to support athletics in India. You can see that that I had to borrow poles from my friend for this event. I do not have a single pole for practice,” Bimin said in an interview. “In India, the athlete does things on his own. There is hardly any support from anyone. I am doing the same for the last couple of years,” added Bimin, who hails from Kerala. Bimin’s previous best was 5.05 metres achieved in 2009.
Questions cropped up whether the mark would be approved but the Athletics Federation of India secretary C K Valson said it would certainly be considered for ratification.
“We have our technical delegate in Bhopal and we will await his report,” he said from Chennai.
World Record in Pole Vault in men’s category is 6.14m which was set by Sergey Bubka of Ukraine in 1994 and the Olympic Record in this category is 5.97m made by Renaud Lavillenie of France at the 2012 London Olympics.
Bimin said it has been a problem for him to improve because he does not have his own poles. “On many occasions, I have been forced to change my training schedule due to lack of poles,” he said and added, “I have been trying hard for this day. I am thankful to my coaches and friends for helping me achieve such success.” When asked about his role model, he said: “I do not believe in role models. I always work on my mistakes to achieve better in life. This is the way I participate in any event,” the 27-year-old athlete said.
About his targets, Bimin said, “Obviously, Olympics is my dream. But I think one first needs to be the best in the region. Setting national record is the just the beginning.”
Meanwhile, Renjith Maheswary, who had flopped at the London Olympic Games fouling all his jumps in the qualification round, won the triple jump with an effort of 15.85 metres.
