The opening day of the 40th National Junior Athletics Championships (NJAC) at the Kalinga Stadium served as a revealing snapshot of the next generation of Indian athletics a day of record-breaking highs and structural reminders of the work that still lies ahead.
From Mohit Choudhary’s record 5000m run to Nikita Kumari’s world-qualifying discus throw, India’s junior contingent began their march toward the World U20 Championships 2026 in Oregon with a mix of promise, precision, and potential pitfalls. Two standout performances ensured India opened its qualification campaign in emphatic style. Telangana’s Mohit Choudhary stormed to gold in the U20 men’s 5000m, clocking 14:09.71s to set a new meet record (NMR) and comfortably surpass the World U20 entry benchmark of 14:15.00s. The run secured him an automatic berth for Oregon 2026.
In the U20 women’s discus throw, Nikita Kumari (Rajasthan) claimed gold with a best effort of 48.81m, edging past the qualifying standard of 48.50m. The throw validated her consistency a continuation of her impressive domestic season, which saw her register a 50.17m personal best earlier this year.
Both athletes now move beyond the “qualification chase” phase. With Oregon secured, the focus for their next training cycles will shift to specialized race preparation, technical refinement, and competition exposure abroad.
Mohit Choudhary: The New Face of Indian Distance Running
Choudhary’s race was a masterclass in pacing and poise. Taking control early, he dictated the rhythm through consistent 68-second laps before accelerating over the final kilometre to break the previous record (14:12.67) set by Vinod Singh in 2024. His performance wasn’t just dominant it was strategic.
However, the lack of depth behind him was evident. The next best finishers, Abhinandan S. (14:19.52s) and Dhramraj Jat (14:19.68s), fell just shy of the international standard. While Choudhary’s qualification is secure, the narrow talent pool below him underscores a broader concern: India’s endurance depth still remains shallow. For Choudhary, the road ahead involves refining race intelligence and closing speed. His inclusion in a national high-altitude endurance camp and exposure to Asian circuit 5000m races could help him bridge the tactical gap to global competitors, many of whom routinely clock under 14 minutes.
In the U20 women’s 1500m, Vaishnavi Rawal (Karnataka) finished with 4:29.19s, just 0.19 seconds off the world standard. Her result highlights immense promise but also emphasizes the need for a time buffer relying on a margin of less than a quarter-second in qualification is precarious. Conversely, Sonam Parmar (Madhya Pradesh) clocked 17:20.98s in the women’s 5000m, nearly 41 seconds adrift of the world benchmark. The gap indicates a significant developmental need in women’s distance training particularly in aerobic base work and sustained threshold running.
The contrasting outcomes between men’s and women’s endurance events reveal a gendered asymmetry in developmental pipelines one thriving on momentum, the other still searching for consistency.
Discus Throw: A Measured Victory for Nikita Kumari
For Nikita Kumari, the discus circle brought both validation and a new challenge. Her winning throw of 48.81m exceeded the World U20 qualifying mark and ensured early entry, but it was 1.36m short of her personal best.
The next phase for Kumari must focus on technical stabilization achieving consistency across multiple throws rather than peaking intermittently. Coaches have identified her rotational acceleration and release angle as key improvement areas. With the qualifying mark secured, her training block leading into 2026 should prioritize range consistency (50–52m) and biomechanical precision over raw distance. Kumari, just 19 in 2026, represents the ideal balance of youth and experience. If nurtured well, she could emerge as India’s next world-level thrower a testament to the increasing competitiveness of India’s women’s throws program.
Sprints: Speed, Precision, and Technical Oversights
The 100m finals across both U20 and U18 categories produced near-identical times, underlining India’s growing sprint depth. In the U20 men’s 100m, Parth Singh (Jharkhand) clocked 10.52s, 0.08 seconds faster than the proxy world standard of 10.60s. Yet his qualification remains provisionally unverified pending confirmation of a legal wind reading a technical oversight that could nullify a world-class performance. Such lapses in recording wind speed data highlight operational inefficiencies that must be corrected immediately to ensure international compliance.
Among the women, Suba Dharsini S. (Tamil Nadu) clinched the U20 100m in 11.94s, just 0.04s short of the standard. Incredibly, U18 winner Aarti Siwach (Haryana) clocked 11.95s, virtually matching her senior counterpart. Siwach’s age-relative performance suggests she’s already operating at U20 level standards a prodigy in the making who could dominate age-group sprints for years. Both athletes need tailored support: for Suba, micro-focus on reaction time and drive phase efficiency; for Siwach, careful strength and conditioning management to handle her early speed maturity.
While track and field showcased excellence, the U20 men’s pole vault revealed the most glaring performance gap. R. Hariharan Ramesh (Tamil Nadu) won with 4.60m, falling 45cm short of the 5.05m world standard. This deficit points to deeper systemic issues lack of high-quality poles, inadequate facility access, and limited specialized coaching. Such shortcomings are not just event-specific; they also restrict multi-event athletes, particularly decathletes, whose overall scores depend heavily on vault performance.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) must urgently initiate a “Pole Vault Revitalization Program”, auditing facility standards, equipment inventories, and coaching certifications nationwide. Without addressing this, India risks long-term stagnation in one of athletics’ most technically demanding events. The Championships, while a success in performance output, exposed operational vulnerabilities. Athletes in certain throwing events reportedly competed with non-personal implements, an avoidable logistical flaw that introduces unnecessary performance variability.
To sustain progress, AFI must implement:
- Mandatory wind measurement and reporting for all sprints and horizontal jumps.
- Centralized equipment logistics protocols, ensuring athletes have access to their preferred implements.
- Technical support audits to align junior-level competition with World Athletics standards.
Such measures are crucial to protect athletes’ efforts and ensure their performances are internationally valid.
The first day of the National Junior Championships confirmed two realities. One, India’s youth system is capable of producing world-standard performances evident in Mohit Choudhary and Nikita Kumari’s qualifications. Two, the structure still struggles with technical precision and depth-building, issues that can undermine the long-term vision of producing globally competitive athletes. If the federation capitalizes on early qualifiers, invests in event-specific infrastructure (especially vaults and throws), and strengthens data integrity in result reporting, India’s junior program can transition from sporadic brilliance to consistent excellence.
The 2025 edition of the NJAC has, therefore, done more than just crown new champions it has exposed where India excels, where it lags, and where the next leap must come from.
