Bhubaneswar: Reliance Foundation’s young athletes sparkled brightly at the 39th National Junior Athletics Championships 2024 in Bhubaneswar from 7th to 11th December, winning a total of 12 medals, including eight Golds, two silvers and two bronze medals besides two meet records to boot.
On the final day of action, winning four gold in the evening session through Ommkar Prasad Nanda (U18 men’s shot put), DM Jayaram (men’s 200m), Sakshi Chavan (women’s 200m) and Laxmipriya Kisan (women’s 800m).
Triple gold medallist DM Jayaram said, “I am really happy to get three golds as this is my last year of U20 competition. I achieved my personal best in the 100m and also was part of the meet record setting 4x100m relay team. It is not easy to win three golds for a sprinter and I’m very happy that I achieved this feat. I hope to do even better in the future. Doing it in front of my home state crowd makes it even more special. The Odisha government and Reliance Foundation have been a big support. I have had access to the best coaches and support staff thanks to them. I will now focus on the National Games and World University Games, which are coming up next year and aim to achieve my goals there.”
Sakshi, Jayaram and Astik Pradhan dominated the sprinting events, with Sakshi and Jayaram taking away gold in both 100m and 200m events in a dominant display. Jayaram and Astik were also a part of the Odisha men’s 4x100m relay team that blazed away to Gold in just 41.10s, a new meet record. Mahendra Santa and Rajendra Sidhu were the other members of the dominant relay quartet.
Jayaram clocked a new personal best of 10.50s in the men’s 100m final, while Sakshi also equaled her personal best of 11.86s in the women’s equivalent. Sandeep Gond added to the gold rush by finishing top in the men’s 110m hurdles event with a time of 14.02s.
