Coach Ghanshyam Yadav gets foreign expert to fuel pole vaulter Dev Meena’s evolution

Pole Vaulter Dev Kumar Meena deserves the attention and the accolades in the wake of his National Record breaking effort in the National Games in Dehradun on Monday. His coach Ghanshyam Yadav also is worthy of high praise for being a rare, if not unique, Indian coach who is willing to hand over the evolution of his athlete to another coach.

Having inspired Dev Meena to shift from 400m to Pole Vault in 2021, Ghanshyam Yadav has was beaming with pride on Monday when his 19-year-old mentee raised the National Record to 5.32m. The lad from Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, who has made the Madhya Pradesh Athletics Academy in Bhopal his home, had set a personal best of 5.20m on September 29 last.

The 29-year-old Ghanshyam Yadav realised he could help Dev Meena get the National record but became increasingly aware that he may not have the ammunition needed to make his trainee become an Asian medalist. Along with the Madhya Pradesh Department of Sports, he searched for a coach who could  take Dev Meena to greater heights.

They zeroed in on Cuban Angel Esteban Eduardo Garcia, who has a personal best clearance of 5.65m, to assist Dev Meena on his onward journey. Of course, it is not as if Ghanshyam Yadav will not be around. But the former Uttar Pradesh pole vaulter who completed his NIS coaching diploma in 2018-19 will trust Garcia to give the youngster the guidance to greater heights.

“I knew that Dev would need more expert guidance from here on,” Ghanshyam Yadav said, explaining his decision to seek the help of a foreign coach. Clearly, he did not seek to retain a stranglehold on the youngster’s training regimen as he is aware that if waited to add layers of knowledge, Dev Meena’s evolution may possibly be not as quick to realise potential.

Few coaches are willing to let go of the trainees they have discovered and groomed to national champions. They believe that they are armed with the knowledge to make their trainees rise higher in the international sphere. But there have been many examples across disciplines of coaches stunting their athletes’ growth due to their unwillingness to let them train with others.

The coach has seen his trainee face tough situations of having to attempt clearing the bar on borrowed pole in the Asian U20 Athletics Championships in South Korea in 2023. He has also seen Dev Kumar Meena return to the Asian U20 competition in Dubai last year and win bronze with a best clearance of 5.10m.

Occasionally, he ropes in the first civilian from Madhya Pradesh to summit Mount Everest, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, to inspire Dev Meena to rise to greater heights. By showing that he is unafraid of seeking such holistic support for his athletes, Ghanshyam Yadav has earned praise for his athlete-development first approach from many. 

It remains to be seen how the Dev Meena-Garcia partnership works to overcome the challenges that are bound to come along with such international collaborations. Indeed, there have been instances of Indians training with foreign coaches, both at home and overseas, but returning to their first coaches because of challenges of language and workload management.

While nobody knows what the future holds, there is already an excitement surrounding Dev Meena’s evolution in a highly technical event. It would truly be a wonderful example if Ghanshyam Yadav continues seeking raw talent and bringing it up to a certain level just as he has done with Dev Meena. 

The coach comes as a whiff of fresh air and deserves being celebrated. He may be diminutive at five foot five, but he has acquired a stature of his own by scripting a rare story of an Indian coach finding another coach to work with his trainee. Ghanshyam Yadav has shown that it is possible to stay connected with the larger dream by doing everything possible in that direction.