Updated 20 January 2026 at 17:12 IST
Viral And Ridiculous! Decorated Indian Pole Vaulters Thrown Off Train for Carrying Poles; Video Out
Indian pole vaulters Dev Meena and Kuldeep Yadav were forced off a train at Panvel, fined ₹5000 for carrying poles, and stranded for hours, highlighting poor treatment of athletes by railway
Two of India’s finest pole vaulters discovered, the hard way, that excellence travels light in a system that struggles to recognise it.
Dev Meena and Kuldeep Yadav, national champions and international medallists, were forced off a train at Panvel for carrying pole vaulting poles, the essential, non-negotiable instruments of their sport, in an episode that would be comic if it were not so dispiriting.
Famed Indian Pole Vaulters Harassed By Indian Railways Officials In Panvel Station
The athletes were en route from Mangaluru to Bhopal when a travelling ticket examiner objected to their equipment, branding the poles “oversized” and ordering them to disembark. In a video that has since gone viral, officials appear unmoved by repeated explanations that pole vaulters, by definition, require poles.
What followed was less a rules check than a test of endurance. The athletes were left stranded for nearly five hours, shunted between officials, their credentials politely ignored. The message was simple and unyielding: pay up, or don’t travel.
Eventually, a call to their coach resolved the impasse. ₹5,000 changed hands. The system exhaled. The athletes were allowed back on board.
There is a particular cruelty in the mundanity of it all. No shouting, no drama, just the slow grind of officialdom, confident in its power and uninterested in context. The same system that applauds medals on television had, on this platform, reduced its athletes to inconveniences.
Meena and Yadav later asked the question that lingers longest. If this is how athletes with national records and international medals are treated, what chance does a junior competitor, unknown and unsupported, stand?
Who Are Dev Meena And Kuldeep Yadav?
Dev Meena, 19, is a national record holder who recently cleared 5.35 metres at the National Federation Senior Athletics Championships. Kuldeep Yadav, 21, is an All India Inter-University gold medallist and meet record holder. Between them, they represent years of training, public investment, and sporting promise.
None of it mattered at Panvel.
Indian sports often celebrate triumph as destiny while treating preparation as a nuisance. It was not a failure of policy so much as a failure of imagination, an inability to see athletes as professionals with specialised needs rather than problems to be fined away.
The video has travelled faster than the train they were thrown off. Whether the lesson travels as far remains to be seen.
Published By : Pavitra Shome
Published On: 20 January 2026 at 14:00 IST