Niharika Vashisht banks on social media earnings to fund her training | More sports News

Niharika funds training through her social media hits

Kochi:Niharika Vashisht grabbed eyeballs by beating local favourite Sandra Babu in the women’s triple jump at the National Federation Senior Athletics Championship here on Wednesday. However, it’s not just on the jumping pit that Niharika is garnering attention.
A social media influencer, Niharika has quite a following on the internet. She is making prudent use of the revenue she earns from social media account by funding her own training expenses. “Right now, I have 234K followers, and I havet enough projects to fund my training and buy supplements.
I have also ensured that I handle my accounts without hampering my training schedule,” said Niharika, who became a social media influencer during the Covid lockdown. “If I waited for sponsorship or support from the govt, I wouldn’t have reached where I am right now.
I use the money I earn from social media to pursue my athletics career,” the 29-year-old from Mohali added. Her father, Ram Kumar Vashisht, resigned from a private sector job ten years ago to support his daughter’s athletic aspirations. “For the last few years, I haven’t had to trouble my parents for my training.
I’m able to manage my training with my earnings from the one or two projects I get every month,” reveals Niharika, whose mother is a teacher at the Govt Senior Secondary School in Gharuan near Mohali. At the 27th National Federation Senior Athletics Competition in Bhubaneswar last year, Niharika leapt to 13.07m but missed out on a medal by 0.01m in the women’s triple jump.
However, Niharika has made rapid strides since then, as was evident in her gold-medal-winning leap of 13.49m at the Maharaja’s College Stadium. “I changed my technique, mainly the run-up, after consulting my team. I changed my approach totally and worked on my speed, which is the real factor behind my improvement in the past year,” feels Niharika.