Bhubaneswar: Continuing their stellar performance on second day of the 35th East Zone Junior Athletics Championship 2024, Team Odisha bagged 24 medals on Tuesday.
The team won 10 gold medals, 6 silver and 8 bronze at the on-going event being played in the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. With today’s results, Odisha has bagged total 51 medals including 18 gold, 14 silver and 19 bronze medals in the competition so far.
In over 18 track and field events, athletes of Odisha bagged 24 medals including 10 gold, 6 silver and 8 bronze. In the Boys U18 200m event, Pratik Maharana won a gold medal. Dondapati Jayaram and Astik Pradhan won a gold and silver in the Boys U20 200m event respectively.
The team of Astik Pradhan, Pankaj Mandal, Jasman Kujur, Bapi Hansda struck gold in the Boys U20 4x400m event. P Arpita Archana bagged a gold medal in the Girls U20 Javelin event and Sunita Santa won another gold in the Girls U18 1000m event.
Bhaskar Sarma, Principal Secretary, Sports and Youth Services department, attended the championship on its second day and encouraged the athletes. He also felicitated the medal-winning athletes and extended his best wishes to them.
Delighted over the team’s medal haul at the championship, Head Coach, Athletics Project Odisha, DSYS, Sanjay Garnaik hoped for a good medal haul at the junior nationals as well. “Looking at the performances of our athletes in the competition, I am certain that our performance at the junior nationals will be much better than previous years. The East Zone Championship is like a warm-up session for our athletes,” he said.