All four athletes from the High Performance Centre finished among the medals, with DM Jayaram winning two and Sabita Toppo recording a personal best.
Athletes from Odisha-Reliance Foundation High Performance Centre (HPC) shone at the SAFF Junior Athletics Championships in Chennai by winning five medals in the competition. DM Jayaram shined by winning a couple of medals, bronze in the men’s 100m event and silver in the men’s 100m event. 4x100m relay eventwhere he was accompanied by fellow Odisha-RF HPC athlete Mahendra Santa.
Sabita Toppo won silver in the women’s 100m hurdles in a striking display and Laxmipriya Kisan also won a silver in the women’s 800m.
Commenting on his performance, Martin Owens, Head Coach, Odisha-RF HPC, said, “The SAFF Junior Athletics Championships was a really good competition and a very good opportunity for some young athletes to represent India for the first time. From our point of view, Jayaram ran exceptionally well. He was up against two very high-quality Sri Lankan sprinters, who, like Jayaram, had participated in the World Junior Championships. He ran his best race of the season so far, so I am very pleased with his effort.
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“Jayaram and Mahendra also ran very well in the 4x100m relay team. Mahendra is still recovering from dengue and will run even better in the future. Laxmi was a big plus point as she was called up at the last minute. She had a very short recovery time but ran very well. The best performance of our contingent for me was Sabita who ran under 14 seconds for the first time. When she is in the best condition, she does very well. I am very proud of the team here in Odisha for preparing the athletes so well.”
The Odisha-RF HPC is a strong collaborative effort of the Government of Odisha and Reliance Foundation, with an aim to improve the standard of athletics across the state and produce local athletes who can achieve both national and international success.
Jayaram acknowledged the role played by Odisha-RF HPC in his success and said, “My life has completely transformed in the last two years and I feel that I have come a long way. Before joining the High Performance Centre, I had never received such training. Winning medals in an international competition is a dream come true for me and I feel very proud.”
Kisan, who entered at the last minute, clocked 2:10.87 to win silver. Sabita ran a personal best of 13.96 s and was within the previous SAFF junior record on her way to her medal. Jayaram ran a season’s best of 10.56 s, which was also within the SAFF junior record for India.
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