Who is Anushka Yadav, the youngest national record holder in Indian track and field

18-year-old hammer thrower Anushka Yadav has become the talk of Indian athletics after breaking the national record in a sensational performance at the National Inter-State Championships held at Kalinga Stadium on Wednesday.

The Uttar Pradesh athlete produced a stunning throw of 67.02m to rewrite the national record, which stood for nine years. The previous mark of 65.25m was set by Sarita Singh at the Federation Cup in Patiala in 2017.

In fact, Anushka smashed the national record twice out of the six attempts she had. She began with a 62.07m and then went past Sarita's previous national record with a second round throw of 65.64m. She then cleared 64.81m in her third throw and came up with 61.89m and a foul in the next two rounds before producing a massive 67.02m in her last attempt.

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Her first round throw even bettered the Asian Games qualifying mark of 61.72m set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). She is, however, in 11th place among the Asian hammer throwers so far in the season.

With this feat, Anushka has now become the youngest national record holder in Indian athletics.

Who is Anushka Yadav?

Interestingly, her journey did not begin with hammer throw. Anushka initially trained for the 100m sprint before switching to throwing events on the advice of her father, Sushil Yadav, who is also her first coach and a former hammer thrower.

Anushka, who comes from a farming family in Baleni village of Baghpat district, was first introduced to the hammer at the age of 12 and has trained under multiple coaches since then.

"My father makes me play hammer. I have three personal coaches, including my father and Chirag Yadav. I trained at my local ground," Anushka said after breaking the record on Wednesday.

"I want to throw 70m plus and win gold in the Asian Games," she added.

Anushka suffered a ligament fracture in March but recovered soon enough to be able to compete in the National Inter-State Championships.

"It happened in March when I tried to fix some problem in our tractor at our piece of land at home. My brother and father were also there at that time. Luckily, I recovered soon enough."