With just a couple of months to go for the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, India's athletes are in the final phase of preparations, hoping to deliver their best performances and add to the country's medal tally across sports. Among the events drawing particular attention this year is men's pole vault, as India prepares to make its return to the competition after a gap of four decades.

The last Indian to compete in men's pole vault at the Asian Games was Vijaypal Singh at the 1986 edition in Seoul. Forty years later, Madhya Pradesh's Dev Kumar Meena is set to end that long wait by representing India on the international stage. As he carries not just the tri colour but also the weight of history, the 21-year-old vaulter is certain of bagging a medal at the Asian Games.

Heading into the Asian Games, Dev is enjoying the best form of his career. The MP athlete created a national record of 5.45 metres at the 29th Senior National Athletics Championships in Ranchi in May, only to surpass it weeks later with a clearance of 5.46 metres at the Inter-State Athletics National Championships on June 24. With this feat, he didn’t only break his own record, but has given hope to India for a medal at the historic games.

While Dev is positive about clinching a medal for India and creating history, his journey so far has been anything but straightforward. Hailing from Silphodkheda village in Khategaon, a small town in the state's Dewas district, around 146 kilometres from the district headquarters, Dev always had a passion for sports. However, pole vault was never part of his plan.

As a seventh-grade student, Dev dreamt of becoming a sprinter and had little knowledge of pole vault, a sport that would eventually define his career. It wasn't until 2019, when he was around 14 or 15 years old, that he was introduced to pole vault.

"Studies never interested me from the very beginning. I was studying at a private school in Khategaon and staying in the hostel. I was asked to leave that school and joined another. It was there that I realised my inclination was more towards sports, especially running. There was a stadium in Khategaon where I would go every day to run and train," Dev recalled during a telephonic conversation with this reporter.

The turning point came when one of Dev's school friends told him about the athletics facilities at TT Nagar Stadium in Bhopal. Intrigued, he moved to the state capital in 2019 and enrolled there to train in the 400 metres. He continued as a sprinter for nearly a year.

"I started having back pain, but I still continued with my practice. I was also attending school in Bhopal. Soon, I realised that I could either focus on my running or on my studies. I obviously chose the former and took a break from studies," he said.

Around the same time, fate introduced him to coach Ghanshyam Yadav, a meeting that would alter the course of his sporting career. Ghanshyam saw potential in Dev's physique and suggested he take up pole vault—a sport the youngster had never even heard of.

"Meeting Ghanshyam Sir was a life-changing moment for me. I obviously had no idea about pole vault. I hadn't even heard of the sport. He introduced me to it and told me that my body was well suited for it. I trusted him and started training in pole vault without telling my parents. They were on a pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi when I decided to switch from sprinting to pole vault," Dev recalled.

Just as Dev had begun finding his feet in pole vault and was convinced he had found his calling, the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a standstill. The stadium where he’d practice, was shut down. Competitons were cancelled. Eventually, he was forced to return to his village. But that didn’t stop him from practicing as his coach ensured that his progress did not come to a halt.

"Everything changed. The academy was closed. I got sick, and everything else was shut too. I had to go home. But even during the lockdown, Ghanshyam Sir made sure I kept training. He would send me my daily workout, and with the help of that, I was able to continue training in my village," said the vaulter.

When the COVID-19 restrictions were eased, Dev returned to Bhopal and moved in with his coach, who became much more than just a mentor.

"Over time, he didn't just train me, but also taught me how to cook. He supported me in every possible way, especially during those initial two to three years of the pandemic," he added.

Dev's breakthrough came in 2022, when he won the silver medal in the under-20 pole vault event with a clearance of 4.60 metres at a competition in Nadiad, Gujarat. It was a milestone made possible by his coach's unwavering belief in him.

"Ghanshyam Sir paid for my participation from his own pocket because I wasn't a part of the Madhya Pradesh Athletics Association back then. When I returned to Bhopal after the tournament, that was when I truly felt my pole vault journey had begun," Dev recalled.

 

The success in Gujarat proved to be just the beginning for the young vaulter. His next major outing was the Khelo India Games, where he set an under-18 national record with a clearance of 4.90 metres. A year later, in 2023, he rewrote the under-20 national record by clearing 5.16 metres. Since then, Dev has continued to raise the bar, amassing five national records—one each in the under-18 and under-20 categories, and three in the senior category, apart from the latest national mark of 5.46 metres that he set recently.

 

With multiple national records to his name and an Asian Games berth secured, one might wonder if Dev has already achieved everything he set out to. For Dev, however, this is only the beginning.

"When I started as a pole vaulter, there wasn't much awareness about the sport. Very few people took it up. Back then, there was Siva Subramaniyam's national record of 5.31 metres, which had stood for a long time. But my coach always told me that our goal wasn't just to break records—we had to win medals at the Asian Games. Whenever I told people that, they would laugh at me," said Dev. Interestingly, it was Dev who broke Siva’s record.

Dev believes he is now living a dream that once seemed distant. "Earlier, I only dreamt of qualifying for the Asian Games or the Commonwealth Games. Today, I'm actually living that dream. The Olympics may seem like a much bigger goal, but I'm certain I'll get there too. I want to represent India at the Olympics. No Indian has qualified for the Olympic pole vault event so far, and that's exactly what I'm aiming for."

Dev calls for better pole vault facilities in India:

While Dev has benefited from training in Bhopal, he believes India's pole vault ecosystem still has a long way to go. The national record-holder stressed that the lack of infrastructure, expensive equipment, and limited coaching opportunities continues to hinder the sport's growth across the country.

"The kind of pole vault facility we have in Bhopal is available at very few places in India. In fact, even if you look at the Sports Authority of India centres, only the one in Bengaluru has infrastructure for it. If this situation continues, it will be difficult for the sport to grow in the country. The poles are very expensive. More people will take up the sport only if the government supports them. We need better facilities and more coaches, and I hope we have them in the future," he said.

Reacting to the viral rickshaw video that sparked debate:

Dev also addressed the viral video that sparked widespread discussion on social media in May. The clip, recorded after he and fellow pole vaulter Kuldeep Yadav set national records in Ranchi, showed the duo travelling in a cycle rickshaw with their poles balanced alongside them. The visuals prompted many social media users to question whether this was the kind of logistic support that the country’s national champions were being provided.

However, according to Dev, the social media outrage was misplaced.

"If MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli don't carry their own bats, then who else will? We have to carry our own equipment. We can't leave it to somebody else. Our competition ended a little late, so we took a rickshaw. Besides, our hotel was barely 500 metres from the stadium. This is how we travel. There's no big issue in it. People made it look huge, but it's absolutely normal for us to carry our own equipment," he said.

Once asked to leave school, now carrying India's hopes:

Today, Dev is India's national record holder in men's pole vault, with the country hoping for a medal in Asian Games 2026. But there was a time when his lack of interest in academics got him expelled from school.

His father, Jagdish Patel, a soybean and wheat farmer from Dewas district, recalled how the principal of the private school where Dev studied in Khategaon called him to complain that his son was neglecting his studies.

"He never had any interest in studies from a very young age. One day, the principal called me and said he wasn't focused on academics and never completed his homework. She told me that keeping him in the school would affect its reputation and asked us to admit him somewhere else," Jagdish said.

While many parents would have insisted that their child prioritise academics, Dev's family though differently. By then, Dev had already discovered his passion for running and had expressed his desire to pursue sports seriously.

"When we admitted him to another school, he still wasn't interested in studies. By then, he had developed a keen interest in running. After learning about the stadium in Bhopal, he told me that studies were not his cup of tea and that he wanted to focus on athletics instead. It wasn't an easy decision for us as parents, but we believed in his dream and gave him the opportunity he wanted," his father said.

The family later shifted Dev to a school in Bhopal so he could train, never forcing him to excel in academics. "He only asked us for one chance to prove himself in sports," Jagdish recalled.

Looking back, Dev's father says all the uncertainty was worth it.

"Back then, we used to worry about what he would do in life if he didn't study. But now we realise that his heart was always in sports, and that's where he is making his name. We are extremely proud of everything he has achieved," he said, adding that he comes home once in six months.