PRAYAGRAJ, June 22 -- Like any other parents, women's national high jump record holder Sahana Kumari and 2010 national inter-state men's 100m champion BG Nagaraj, too want their daughter, Pavana Nagraj, to conquer the world of athletics and for that they are leaving no stone unturned. A long jumper, Pavana will be seen in action at the three-day 23rd National Junior U20 Federation Athletics Championship, starting here on Sunday, at the Madan Mohan Malviya Stadium, and her mother, Sahana, will be watching her jumps closely as Pavana has targeted a podium finish at next year's Asian Games at Japan. "Pavana is ready and training hard on her mission for success at next year's Asian Games. She has just returned from an eight-month training stint in the United States, and hopes to make a podium finish here also," said Sahana, India's best exponent in high jump as she competed at the 2012 London Olympics. "Before coming to India, Pavana won many events in the US and her personal best jump is 6.32 metre. I don't know how she is going to cope with the weather here in Prayagraj and we are just trying to acclimatise with the conditions here," she added. Pavana, who is a student athlete in the US at San Diego University, is currently India No 4 in her event and appearing in her last event in the U20 event. "She won't be able to compete in the World U20 Athletics Championship next year as she would be above 20 by then," said Sahana, adding, "That's why she is targeting the next Asian Games." There will be a few other well-known former athletes of India with their trainees at the three-day championship, which is set to see some fierce battles in almost all events, but Pavana's story is an inspiration to many as Sahana was a month pregnant with her when she competed at the Inter Railways meet in New Delhi in March 2005. "She (Pavana) too started with high jump, and we never forced her to pick her favourite event and when she chose to do long jump. We had no objection," said Sahana. "When she was small, I'd have to take her to my practice sessions and some of my competitions too. Once at the 2009 Asian athletics Grand Prix event in Bengaluru, after I'd won a silver, Pavana ran onto the field and started jumping into the landing bed by herself. That's when she first said she wanted to be a high jumper as well," recalls Sahana. Pavana's first serious attempts at high jump came as a surprise to her. It occurred at a Karnataka school meet in 2018, where Pavana was originally entered in the sprint and long jump events. Entirely on a whim, she decided to take part in the high jump event as well. She ended up winning gold. While her clearing a bar set at 1.33m was impressive enough, what stunned most was that she did so using the Fosbury Flop technique. Meanwhile, hosts Uttar Pradesh will be fielding 200 plus athletes in the championships, and they are ready to challenge Haryana athletes. "Haryana has fielded 300 plus athletes in the event here, but we are ready to challenge them as we have done our homework well, especially in short distance running and throws," Uttar Pradesh Athletics association's technical committee head, Anu Kumar said on Saturday. In all, over 1,200 athletes and 125 officials will be seen in action in the championship, which will witness competitions in 20 events both in men's and women's categories. Even though the meet isn't the qualifying for the next year's World U20 Athletics Championship, it's an opportunity for many to test their skills for the qualifying next year....