MP sprinter who turned to pole vaults to U-23 Asian Championship squad

Bhopal: Nikita Akare, who started her athletic journey six years ago as a runner before switching to pole vaulting four years ago, has become one of India’s most promising pole vaulters. The 20-year-old daughter of a farmer won silver at the National Athletics Championships in Ranchi on Saturday with a clearance of 4.10 m— a feat attributed to both her natural talent and relentless determination. She has also qualified for the inaugural U-23 Asian Athletics Championships in China, later this year.

A regular member of Bhopal-based MP athletics academy, Nikita’s story begins in Karondmaphia, a nondescript village in Khategaon tehsil of Dewas district with just 192 households and 860 residents. In a place where many still do not know what pole vaulting involves, the teenager’s decision to exchange sprint shoes for a pole was the first leap into the unknown.

Her coaches at Tatya Tope Stadium in Bhopal and she quickly realised her natural aptitude for pole-vault, and within three years she had progressed from a novice to the country’s top vaulter.

The ascent was not smooth. In 2023, during a routine practice session, Nikita suffered a devastating fall that left her with a broken left leg. The injury sidelined her for a full year, plunging the young athlete into a period of physical pain and acute uncertainty.

“There were days when I wondered if I would ever vault again,” she recalled. The long rehabilitation tested her resolve: months of physiotherapy, painstaking rebuilding of strength, and the mental battle to overcome fear of the pole itself.

Her return to the runway has been emphatic. Over the past two years, Nikita has not only reclaimed her form but elevated it. At the recently concluded Senior National Athletics Championships in Ranchi, she produced one of the most compelling performances of the meet, earning a silver medal in the women’s pole vault.

The podium finish also secured her qualification for the Under-23 Asian Championships in China, a sign that her trajectory is now international. The championship will be organised in Ordos, China from July 9.

The Ranchi meet offered further cause for celebration: Nikita cleared the qualifying standard for the upcoming Asian Games in Japan.

While the result puts her on course for the continent’s marquee multi-sport event, official confirmation of her Asian Games berth rests on a repeat performance at the Inter-State Championships next month.

From the narrow lanes of Karondmaphia to the national stadiums, Nikita Akare’s journey is a study in resilience. Her comeback from a serious fracture to silver at the senior nationals underlines a quality vital for elite sport — the capacity to convert setback into motivation.

For a village that barely registers pole vaulting on its map, one of its daughters is now poised to represent India abroad, carrying both personal ambition and rural aspiration.