How meditation and visualisation helped K. Ambriesh seal high jump gold at National Junior Athletics Championships

The 18-year-old from Tiruchirappalli was not bogged down by misses at 2.15m, turned to his tested technique of visualisation, and secured the top prize with a personal best jump of 2.18m.

Updated : Oct 25, 2026 23:23 IST , CHENNAI - 4 MINS READ

K. Ambriesh equalled Sreenith Mohan’s meet record from 2014 as he cleared 2.18m to win gold at the National Junior Championships. | Photo Credit: Siva Sankar A.

K. Ambriesh had failed to clear 2.15m twice. With one attempt left, he sat down in the changing area beside the track and pictured himself sailing over the bar.

His approach had lacked the speed he needed in the first two attempts. Before returning to the runway, the Tamil Nadu high jumper used a meditation and visualisation routine he has recently learnt. On the third attempt, he cleared a new personal best.

“When I visualise, I get the thought that I can clear it. That makes it easier. When I jump, I don’t feel that pressure,” Ambriesh told Sportstar.

That clearance kept him moving upwards at the National Junior Athletics Championships in Chennai on Sunday. He eventually reached 2.18m, matching Sreenith Mohan’s meet record from 2014 and winning him the men’s Under-20 gold. Kerala’s Binoy B. finished second with 2.11m, ahead of Karnataka’s Sinan (2.05m).

Three attempts at 2.20m proved unsuccessful, with Ambriesh saying rain had made it difficult to go higher. His record-equalling finish, though, came after a timely recovery, at a height that had almost stopped him.

Ambriesh trains at the SAI National Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. | Photo Credit: Siva Sankar A.

The 18-year-old from Tiruchirappalli first took up high jump in class six, having also tried sprints and the long jump. His father would wake him at 5:00 am and take him to practice, helping him fit athletics around his schoolwork. However, an accident forced a lengthy interruption. An injury to his take-off foot kept him away from training for about two years.

When he resumed, his practice required improvisation. Wooden supports stood on either side of the jumping area, with a javelin laid across them in place of a high jump bar. He landed on mud before his school later arranged a proper landing pad.

With little specialist instruction available, he turned to YouTube to learn how to jump. Watching the movements was the first step, but understanding how to reproduce them would take longer. Asked whether he had imagined reaching this level, Ambriesh said he had simply wanted to keep going and see how far he could progress.

The move to the SAI National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Bengaluru brought him under former National Record-holder Sahana Kumari. Having learnt much of the event through videos, he could now work with a coach on individual parts of his technique.

His recollects that his work was specific: correcting how he ran towards the bar, adjusting the position of his head and improving the arch of his back. He credited those changes with helping him jump better.

This season has also shown how much depends on getting the preparation right. At the World Athletics U-20 Championships in Oregon in August, he cleared 2.05m in qualification but failed all three attempts at 2.10m. He attributed the disappointment to tight muscles after a heavy training workload, rather than pressure.

Ambriesh with his father Karthikeyan (L) and coach Srinivasan (R). | Photo Credit: Siva Sankar A.

He now trains in the mornings and evenings, supported at SAI by strength and conditioning, physiotherapy and psychology. Alongside the technical corrections, he has begun learning how to direct his attention between attempts and visualise the jump he wants to make.

The meditation seen in Chennai on Sunday is something he practices away from competition as well. Asked how he could concentrate amid a meet’s music and surrounding noise, Ambriesh explained that he rehearses focusing on a single sound.

“When I go to the training ground, I sit and focus on the sound of the birds. Because I’m concentrating on that one thing, I don’t notice the sounds around me, and I use that same technique during events, and it helps me cancel out other noise around me and just focus on myself,” he said.

After day three of the competition, Tamil Nadu leads the medal tally with 11 gold, five silver, and ten bronze medals. The host State is followed by Uttar Pradesh with 22 medals and Karnataka with 18 medals.