Nivya missed national glory by a whisker

Thiruvananthapuram: If not for her fingers that grazed the bar, Nivya Antony A.C., an athlete with barely two months training would have set a national record in Junior Girls Pole Vault at the 58th Kerala State Schools Athletics Championship being held here.

Nivya, a 9th standard student of KHS Kumaramputhur, trains at the Pala Gems Academy with Coach Satheesh Kumar.

After having set the meet record with her 3.10m jump, Nivya made an attempt for the national record two times, the second time missing the mark by a whisker.

“I asked her not to go for the third attempt fearing she might get injured. She is very new to the event and today she has exerted a lot”, her coach Satheesh Kumar said.

Nivya beat the meet record earlier set by her senior at Gems Academy, Mariya Jaison in 2012. Mariya Jaison, who is now participating in the Senior Girls category, broke Shani Shaji’s 2013 meet record of 3.21m. Jaison, along with a fellow athlete Reshma Raveendran, set a record of 3.25m.

Though both of them broke the meet record, Mariya came first in the event because she cleared it in her first attempt itself.

“Both Nivya and Maria are my wards and both of them have been working really hard for the meet. Nivya showed a lot of promise just after a month of training.

She definitely has a lot of potential and we’ll be working together to bring out the best in her”, says Satheesh Kumar.

Nivya, previously a high jumper and hurdles runner, shifted to pole vault very recently. “I have been attending the state meet for the past few years for high jump and hurdles but was not able to perform well in either of the events.

It was the manager of my school who asked me to make a shift to pole vault as he thought I would be apt for it. And I am so happy I did make the shift”, beams an excited Nivya.

The 2nd day of the School Athletics meet saw three meet records being broken and all 3 of them were in pole vault.