Bhubaneshwar: Odisha Reliance Foundation HPC athlete Sabita Toppo clocked a personal best of 13.98 secs in women’s 100m hurdles at the Kalinga Stadium here on Saturday. The promising 17-year-old Sabita was competing in the Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics HPC’s performance graded competitions (PGC), hosted jointly with Odisha government.
Fourteen other athletes from Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics HPC also took part in the meet and produced some impressive results.
A total of 289 enthusiastic boys and girls from across Odisha participated in the competition, which featured 16 disciplines.
The primary focus of the performance graded competition is to offer athletes both from HPC and outside opportunities to showcase their talent and evaluate their progress as athletes.
“As the years have progressed, we are seeing an increase in the talent that is coming through for the PGCs. What started as an opportunity for our HPC athletes to compete against themselves, to see this become a program that is enabling the development of athletes in Odisha and our athletes an opportunity to improve. We are also looking at PGC’s as an opportunity for athletes to come and participate and deserving athletes to join the HPC programme,” said James Hillier, Athletics Director, Reliance Foundation Athletics Programme.
