(More-on-sports) Reliance Foundation athlete Animesh Kujur made a big splash at the 27th National Federation Senior Athletics Competition by getting personal bests in the 200m and 100m sprints with timings of 20.62s and 10.50s respectively. The 20-year-old is now the second fastest 200m sprinter ever in India history behind fellow RF athlete Amlan Borgohain.
“I worked hard to reach the timing, this is not just my win but this victory is for my coach Martin Owens. I believed that if I make a perfect start I will own the race. The target is to breach the Olympic qualification mark,” expressed Animesh, who trains at the Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High Performance Center. The sprinter will now shift base to Europe for international training and upcoming competitions. (Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C68es8QNqCo/?igsh=Nm95azRkbzZmbXNs)
Flurry of Personal Bests (PBs)
Pragyan Sahu (Silver) and Moumita Mondal (Bronze) marked their personal bests in the women’s 100m Hurdles with timings of 13.40s and 13.64s respectively as RF athletes bagged two podium finishes in the event. Moumita showed impressive fortitude as she won two bronzes on the same evening.
Ashok Dandasena qualified for the 1500m finals with a personal best effort of 3:46.49s but couldn’t finish on the podium inspite of an impressive effort. Young Laxmipriya Kisan also continued her improvement by registering two personal bests.
Talking about the athletes performance, Martin Owens, Head Coach at Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Centre said, “It was an excellent campaign and the athletes exceeded our expectations. Very proud of Ramandeep Kaur who showed a lot of grit and overcame a fever to win bronze in the 400m hurdles.
Pragyan put in another commanding performance and is looking very good. We had a lot of personal bests too with Animesh leading the way. Laxmipriya Kisan got two PBs too in the 800m and 1500m events. Susmita Tigga and Laluprasad Bhoi finished just outside of the medals in fourth place but showed a lot of promise again.“
