Odisha-Reliance Foundation Athletics: High Performance Centre athletes claim five medals at SAAF Junior

CHENNAI: Odisha-Reliance Foundation Athletics High Performance Centre’s (HPC) athletes sparkled at the SAAF Junior Athletics Championships in Chennai by winning five medals at the competition.

All four athletes from the High Performance Centre finished among the medals with DM Jayaram winning two and Sabita Toppo recording a personal best.

DM Jayaram starred by winning a brace of medals, bronze in the men’s 100m event and a silver in the men’s 4x100m relay event, where he was joined by fellow Odisha-RF HPC athlete Mahendra Santa.

A press release added that Sabita Toppo claimed silver in the women’s 100m hurdles event in an eye-catching display and Laxmipriya Kisan also won a silver in the women’s 800m event.

Speaking about the performance, Martin Owens, Head Coach, Odisha-RF HPC said, “The SAAF Junior Athletics Championships was a really good meet and a really 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 taken part in the Junior World Championships. He ran his best race of the season so far, so I was very pleased with his effort.

“Jayaram and Mahendra also ran really well in the 4x100m relay team. Mahendra is still recovering from dengue and he’ll run even better in the future. Laxmi was a big positive as she only got called up at the last minute. She had a short turnaround but ran really well. The best performance from our contingent for me was Sabita’s as she ran under 14s for the first time. When she is in tip top condition, she does very well. Really proud of the team here in Odisha for preparing the athletes so well ,” he added.

Acknowledging the role played by the Odisha-RF HPC in his success, Jayaram said, “My life has completely transformed in the last two years and I feel like I have come a long way. Before becoming a part of the High Performance Centre, I had never even received training of this kind. To win medals in an international competition is a dream come true moment for me and I feel very proud.”

Additionally, Kisan, who was a last minute entry, clocked a time of 2:10.87 to win silver. Sabita notched her personal best of 13.96s and was inside the previous SAFF junior record enroute to her medal. Jayaram ran a season best of 10.56s, which was also inside SAAF junior record for India.