India, Sept. 25 -- Extraordinary day for India at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. 29-year-old Baranica Elangovan has won India's first-ever pole vault medal in the Asian Games. The athlete from Tamil Nadu cleared 4.15m to bag a bronze medal for the country. In fact, she is the first Indian to win a pole vault medal at three of the big events: Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.

Baranica, who earlier this year set a national record at 4.22m at the National Indoor Athletics Championships at Bhubaneswar, breaking Rosy Meena's 4.21m set previously, finally went for 4.25m but she failed to clear it in three attempts. It may be noted that after the abovementioned Bhubaneshwar event, she bettered her national record w...