Odisha's Pratyasa and Co shine in Sr National Aquatic C'ships

Mangalore (Karnataka), Sep 11: Seeking better practice facilities and professional assistance, her parents once wanted to relocate to Karnataka for their daughter's future in swimming.

But with facilities improving in Odisha, she continued to sweat in swimming pools in her home state. Today, she is one of the bright young swimmers of India. 

Having already made her mark in various age group levels, Odisha's Pratyasa Ray has hit the headlines for winning medals in the senior level swimming contests as well. 

Pratyasa and her teammates Shristi Upadhyaya, Divyanka Divyajyoti Pradhan and Sonia Patel have scripted history by winning the first-ever Senior National medal for the State with a Bronze in 4x200m freestyle relay on the opening day of the 77th Senior National Aquatic Championships on Tuesday at the International Swimming Complex, here. 

Pratyasa made it a double delight for Odisha as she also became the State’s first-ever Senior National individual medal winner, bagging a silver in 100m backstroke later in the day. The most-decorated swimmer of Odisha, Pratyasa was part of the State 4x200m freestyle team that won the bronze earlier in the day.

Shristi Upadhyaya, Divyanka Divyajyoti Pradhan and Sonia Patel were other three members of the Odisha quartet that finished third in the 4x200m freestyle relay final with a time of 9:03.53. Karnataka (8:54.85) and Maharashtra (9:01.15) claimed the gold and silver respectively.

Bhubaneswar swimmer Pratyasa won the 100m backstroke silver, clocking 1:05.82 in the final. Soubrity Monda (Bengal) and Rujuta Prasad Rajadnya (Maharashtra) secured the gold and bronze with timings of 1:05.51 and 1:06.30 respectively.

Apart from winning two medals, three more Odisha women swimmers qualified for the finals in respective events. Shristi Upadhaya and Sonia Patel finished fifth and seventh in women 50m butterfly final with a timings of 29.23 and 29.69 respectively. Shristi qualified for the final, clocking 29.11 earlier in the heats.

Divyanka Divyajyoti Pradhan finished fifth in the women 200m breaststroke final with a time of 2:44.20. She qualified for the final, clocking 2:44.93 in her heats. All four medal winners are trainees of the Odisha-JSW Swimming High Performance Centre at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar.

The Odisha State Swimming Association (TOSSA) president Pradip Kumar Padhee described the achievement of the four women swimmers as historic and thanked them for making the State proud.

Padhee added, "TOSSA is thankful to the Odisha Government for developing top-class swimming infrastructure across the State and JSW Group for running the HPC in Bhubaneswar. We are also grateful to HPC Head Coach Sandeep Sejwal and Technical Director Douglas Eagar."

Elated with their daughter's achievement and success of her teammates, Pratyasa’s parents, Rajay Kumar Ray and Charushree Behura too showered praise on the medal winners. They thanked the Odisha Government, the HPC, the coaches, TOSSA and JSW Group for their relentless support to the girls, who have made the state proud with their medal-winning achievements.