ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army’s Mohammad Asif smashed the national record in the pole vault on Tuesday, clearing a height of 4.95 metres to win gold at the National Athletics Championship.

Asif’s leap saw him break the previous record by the barest of margins — 1 centimetre — as he bested Jaffar Ashraf’s effort at the previous edition of the event in Attock.

It was one of two national records broken on the day with the other coming in the 110m hurdles, although the name of the athlete was not mentioned in the official news release.

The new time was 13.70 seconds, bettering the previous best of 13.85 by Mohsin Ali back in 2012.

The president and secretary of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan could not be approached for further details of this event.

According to AFP’s statement, it was the second day of the championships with a total of 18 events being held.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2025