National record holder leads India
Pooja Singh, the 19-year-old high jumper, is India's standout athlete heading into the 2026 World Athletics U20 Championships in Oregon. She broke the national record in the event with a jump of 1.93m at the Asian U20 Championships in Hong Kong, surpassing the previous best of 1.92m set by Sahana Kumari in 2012.
The record-breaking jump secured Singh a gold medal at the continental meet and also qualified her for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, where she finished eighth amid challenging weather. Alongside Singh, Nitin Gupta and Shahnavaz Khan will look to add to India's medal tally in Eugene.
Biggest U20 event in history
The 2026 edition in Oregon is set to be the largest in World Athletics U20 Championships history, with over 1,800 athletes from 147 member federations. This surpasses the 1,558 athletes that competed in the 2024 edition in Lima.
India will be sending a 36-member team—23 men and 13 women—hoping to replicate their Asian U20 success on the global stage. In the last U20 Championships in 2024, India only earned one bronze medal in the women's 10,000m race walk.
India's rising stars on world stage
The U20 Championships have launched the careers of some of India's biggest athletic stars. With Singh, Gupta, and Khan at the forefront, India aims to build on that legacy and make their mark in Oregon. The squad features competitors in sprints, middle-distance, jumps, throws, race walking, and relays, showing the growing strength of Indian junior athletics.