2 min readUpdated: Mar 15, 2026 10:34 PM IST
Young Indian athlete Selva Prabhu broken the Triple Jump national record to clinch the silver medal in the men’s triple jump event at the ongoing NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, USA. Selva, who won a silver medal at the U20 World Championships in 2022 and is the U20 national record holder, jumped 17.05m on Saturday to set the new indoor national record. This is the first time Selva has breached the 17m mark recording his new personal best.
Apart from the Indian national indoor record, Selva also made a new school record for his college Kansas State City. He surpassed the previous record of 17.03m from Vince Parette in 1980, the jump almost a foot and a half farther than his previous best. Prabhu is the first men’s runner-up from K-State since 2008 when Scott Sellers finished 2nd in the high jump.
Selva started making waves from a junior level and his 16.15m jump at the U20 World Championships in 2022 was one of the best jumps in that age group. “I have had that explosive ability from a small age. The speed I haven’t really concentrated. Only recently, I started doing that,” he had earlier told PTI in an interview.
Hailing from Madurai, Selva joined the Kansas State University last year in January to complete his higher education. He is pursuing a degree in English literature.
He became the second Indian to win a medal at the ongoing NCCA Indoor championships with as Lokesh Sathyanathan became only the fourth Indian to win an NCAA Division-1 title after registering a jump of 8.21 metres, also a national record, to win gold at the Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas earlier. He also moved to third on the all-time list of Indian long jumpers, only behind Jeswin Aldrin (8.42m) and Murali Sreeshankar (8.41m).
However, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has strict guidelines for the ratification of national records, which often leads to the non-recognition of performances achieved in foreign competitions, including the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), if they do not meet AFI’s technical and anti-doping requirements.
NCAA manages its own dope-testing programme but it is not a signatory to the WADA Code.
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