Pavana Nagaraj, a 5-foot 8-inch teenager continued her family tradition by rewriting the under-16 national high jump record at the junior nationals in Guwahati by clearing the bar at 1.73 meters.
The 15-year-old high jumper thought stadiums as her second home. She accompanied her parents, both former national-level athletes since she was four and has seen them break records.
According to a report of The Indian Express, her mother Sahana Kumari had jumped 1.92 m, a record that no Indian woman has broken till date. Her father BG Nagaraj has also been an acclaimed sprinter who was crowned the fastest man in India in 2010 when he won the 100m sprint at the inter-state meet. His best has been 10.50 seconds, recorded at the Asian Games trials.
Pavana while quoted by India Express said that she loved going to the track with her parents adding that she really felt upset on the days when her mother left her alone at home. So on most days her mother took her along. "It is due to my parents hard work that I have reached this far. Sports is my passion and I have huge dreams," she said.
Her father, Nagaraj, says the joy of seeing his daughter set the record is an emotion that overshadows anything he or his wife have ever felt at a sporting arena.
"Athletics was in her blood. I am so elated that we have two current national record holders in our house. This is just the beginning, we have very big plans for her," says Nagaraj, who works with the Indian Railways as a sports coach.
They didn't have to nudge their daughter towards athletics, say Sahana and Nagaraj, who are based in Bengaluru. A high-jump medal at the school level, and the recognition that followed was the spark that she needed, believes Sahana.
"At the school meet she wanted to take part in the 100 m event like her father, but did not do well," Sahana says. Pavana's school coach asked her to give high jump a shot, and she turned out to be a natural. Awards at various age-group meets became a habit for her thereafter.
To Sahana, her daughter appears as her own mirror image, and watching Pavana bounce towards the bar reminds her of her own junior days. "If you see her from behind, she almost looks like me. She has a lot of flaws that need to be ironed out. She has to work on improving her run-up. The strides need to be longer. She has a tendency to go too close to the bar; that has to be worked out as well," says Sahana, who competed at the 2012 London Olympics.
After retiring in 2017, Sahana and Nagaraj started training budding athletes at Bengaluru's SAI centre. With Sahana taking a break from coaching after the birth of the couple's second child last year, it's the father who has been Pavana's shadow.
