Rhine-Ruhr [Germany], July 25 : India's Dev Kumar Meena broke the men's pole vault record for the third time during the qualifying rounds of the ongoing FISU World University Games being held in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, on Friday.
During the event, he achieved a personal best of 5.40 m on his second attempt, surpassing his previous record of 5.35 m, which he had set at this year's Federation Cup in Kochi, according to Olympics.com.
This is the third time that the 20-year-old has broken the national pole vault record, having first got the record during the National Games this year, with a 5.32 m attempt, outdoing Subramani Siva's 5.31m from 2022.
Meena, an Asian U20 bronze medal winner, is currently the youngest national record holder in athletics from India.
Drawn in Group A in the qualifiers, Meena secured 5.05 m and 5.25 m initially, before shattering the national record in his second try.
He ended up with a fifth-place finish at the qualifiers, securing his spot in the men's pole vault record for Sunday.
A total of 12 athletes have made it to the medal round.
India has so far won five medals at the competition, with Indian archers securing a gold, silver and bronze each earlier on the day.
A total of 12 athletes qualified for the medal round.
India has won five medals thus far at the 2025 World University Games in Germany. Vaishnavi Adkar clinched a bronze on Thursday in women's singles tennis, while the Indian badminton team secured their bronze on July 20.