Sabita Toppo, DM Jayaram star in five star performance at SAAF Junior Athletics Championships

RF Athletics High Performance Centre’s (HPC) athletes sparkled at the SAFF Junior Athletics Championships in Chennai by winning five medals at the competition. DM Jayaram starred by winning a brace of medals, a bronze in the men’s 100 m event and a silver in the men’s 4x100 m relay event, where he was joined by fellow Odisha-RF HPC athlete Mahendra Santa.

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

Speaking about the performance, Martin Owens, Head Coach, Odisha-RF HPC said, “The SAFF 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 4x100 m 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."

The Odisha-RF HPC, is a strong collaborative effort of the Odisha Government and Reliance Foundation, with the aim to improve the standard of athletics across the state and produce home-grown athletes who can achieve both national and international success.

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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.”

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

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