Reliance Foundation athletes displayed their prowess in several events in an impressive display at the 63rd National Interstate Championships. Overall, Reliance Foundation athletes returned with a very impressive haul of 22 medals.
Jyothi, Tejas continue to set the pace
Jyothi Yarraji impressed again in the 100m Hurdles event taking Gold in the final with her timing of 13.06s. Her fellow RF athlete Pragyan Sahu won silver with a huge personal best of 13.15s, becoming the 3rd Indian athlete ever in the event. Tejas Shirse also continued his blistering form in the men’s 110m hurdles event by clocking a time of 13.54s – his second-fastest time ever and the fastest ever in the event on Indian soil.
Javelin throw podium sweep
In a rare occurrence, India’s most competitive event, the javelin throw, was completely dominated by RF athletes with a clean sweep of the podium. Sahil Silwal finished top with a personal best of 81.81m, Vikrant Malik won silver with a season-best of 81.74m and Kishore Jena passed 80m for the first time in 2024 to take bronze with a best throw of 80.84m.
Jashbir Nayak, who until he joined RF just over 2 years ago had never even competed in a formal athletics event and was competing in his first-ever senior national event, secured a silver medal in Decathlon. National record holder Gulveer Singh secured a gold medal with a meet record to boot in the Men’s 5000m with a timing of 13:34.67, whereas Harshita Sehrawat and Tanya Chaudhary secured silver and bronze, respectively, in the Women’s Hammer Throw Final.
Animesh Kujur forced one and all to take notice of his athletic mettle by winning silver in the men’s 100m, with Amlan Borgohain recovering from a difficult season ravaged by injury to win bronze. Animesh was also part of Team Odisha’s 4×100 team that secured a gold medal – the first relay gold medal in Odisha’s athletics history. Along with Animesh, the team also consisted of DM Jayaram and Aryan Ekka, who traIN at the Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Center in Bhubaneswar. This relay medal was a testament to the success of the Odisha Relay Project that RF set up in 2022 as a reaction to Odisha having never even fielded a men’s team in a 4 x 100m at a national senior competition before. Rosy Meena hopped onto the train of success with her gold medal in the Pole Vault women’s final by clearing 4.00m.
James Hillier, Director of Athletics, Reliance Foundation summed up the meet saying, “One of the highlights for me was Jashbir getting a silver in decathlon. He was a raw athlete when we spotted him two and a half years ago. To see him have success at the national level is a wonderful story. He is a true warrior. Jyothi’s gold medal more or less cements her place on India’s Olympic team. Kishore also secured his place at the Paris Olympics with his medal-winning display. Tejas ran very courageously even though he missed out on the Paris Olympics by a whisker. Gulveer was again very clinical in the 5000m event in a very smooth performance.”
Animesh Kujur wins big
Animesh backed up his silver in the 100m event by winning Gold in the 200m in a time of 20.65s, his second-fastest time ever in this category.
Gulveer also followed his win in the 5000m event with a silver in the 10000m, finishing behind his training partner Kartik Kumar, who won Gold. The other RF athlete to win multiple medals was Ramandeep Kaur, who won silver in the women’s 400m hurdles event and was also a part of the Punjab team that medaled in the women’s 4x400m relay.
In the relay events, Sukhi Baskey and Manisha Merel were part of Team Odisha who won the bronze medal in the 4×100 Women’s relay. Damneet Singh won a silver medal in the Men’s Hammer Throw with a throw of 66.40m to continue his steady run of form. Nidhi Rani also won silver in the women’s discus throw by flinging the discus to a distance of 52.06m.
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