At the athletic meet in New Mexico Team Open 2026 held in Albuquerque, USA, on Saturday, January 31, India’s track and field player Krishna Jayasankar Menon bettered her national record in the women’s indoor shot-put category. Krishna scored her best throw of 16.63m, improving from her previous record of 16.03m to win the title. Meanwhile, Hannah Richardson (15.94m) and Alesha Lane (14.52m) finished in second and third place, earning silver and bronze medals, respectively.
The 23-year-old track and field player currently plays for the University of Nevada (UNLV) in the USA’s NCAA, and represents them in the collegiate level in shot put and discus throw events. Her new national record of 16.63m scored at the Mexico Open 2026 was the second-best of her university’s all-time shot-put record. She is now behind Rosa Santana’s 18.43m record in 2023.
Before the Mexico Open, Krishna started her 2026 campaign in the Nevada International, where she won the women’s shot put title with a best throw of 15.99m. The record, however, keeps her in a good contention for this year’s Asian Games, which is better than the Athletics Federation of India’s (AFI) standard record of 16.25m. The record, however, keeps her two metres away from breaking India’s all-time record in the shot-put event. The national record is currently held by Abha Khatua, who scored a shot of 18.41m at the 2024 Federation Cup.
Krishna comes from a sports background, with her parents, Prasanna and Jayasankar Menon, being Indian basketball players. In the 2-24-25 season with UNLV, she became the first Indian thrower who qualified in the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a discus throw of 55.61m (182′ 5″), scoring at the NCAA West Regionals.
She began her Mexico Open campaign with a decent throw of 14.45m, followed by an improved record of 16.63m in her second attempt, which led her to win the title. Meanwhile, she fouled in her third attempt, registering throws of 14.82m and ended up doing the same in the final throw of 14.92m.
Krishna is the first Indian athlete to reach the 16m mark in the women’s indoor shot-put category, scoring at the 2025 Mountain West Indoor Track and Field Championships with a throw of 16.03m. In addition to that, she broke the previous record of 15.54m scored by Poornarao Rane.
The New Mexico Team Open 2026 event is a World Athletics Championship, which comes under the World Athletics F category event.
