BHUBANESWAR: From speeding through the dusty lanes of Bara as a delivery executive to bring food on the table for his family, Pratik Maharana sped through the track at the Kalinga Stadium to deliver gold with a life-time best run timed at 21.24 seconds in the U20 men's 200m dash at the National Junior Athletics Championships On Monday,
In the process, he also shattered the meet record of 21.26, as well as breaching the qualification mark for the World Ath U20 Championships, scheduled for August next year in Oregon, USA.
Initially training under Siba Mishra at Bargarh mini stadium, he shifted his base to Rourkela to practice in a proper synthetic track. "Siba sir made corrections in my techniques and today I got the results. While coming for this meet my old shoes were not in good condition, my coach presented me a new spike shoe with a lot of blessings”, Maharana said after his run.
Training under sprinter and national record holder in women's 100m, Dutee Chand in Rourkela also helped the 18-year-old. "She gave me a few tips on how to get initial start from the blocks and how to develop acceleration in the curves. It’s always a big learning experience for me to train alongside her," he said.
His coach was upbeat before his medal performance. "I am confident about his hard work and dedication during the training. I am extremely happy that he did it with an NMR and also qualified for the World Athletics U20 Championships. Prateek belongs to a very humble background, during the Covid pandemic I found him as a delivery boy in his home town to meet the basic needs of his family. I extended my support to him and told him to join the training after the pandemic," he explained.
Meanwhile, Haryana’s towering teenage thrower Nishchay was the cynosure of all eyes.
He etched his name in record books by hurling disc (1.5kg) to a distance of 63.69m to win gold in U18 boys’ group. His gold medal winning throw was better than the previous meet record of 60.17m set by Atul in 2022 in Guwahati.
Nishchay had a series of 63.56m, 63.69m, 61.22m, no mark, 62.62m and no mark. Nishchay had also won shot put gold (19.48m) in the competition.
For a record Vaibhav from Himachal Pradesh, winner of U20 men’s discus throw (1.75kg) gold medal winning throw in Bhubaneswar was 55.75m.
Record-breaking performance was witnessed in U20 200m races. Odisha's sprinter Pratik Maharana’s gold medal winning time of 21.24 seconds in U20 men's 200m was better than the previous meet record of 21.26 seconds set by Veeresh Mathur in 2023.
Uttar Pradesh International runner Neeru Pathak continued her good run in the sprints. On Monday she won 200m dash in the U20 women's group with a time of 24.05 seconds to improve the meet record of 24.14 seconds set by Sakshi Chavan in 2024. Neeru had also won gold in U20 400m.
Results: U20: 200m: Pratik Maharana (Odisha) 21.24 seconds (meet record), Jasjit Singh Dhillon (Punjab) 21.59 seconds, Arnav Takalkar (Maharashtra) 21.65 seconds.
400m hurdles: Vishnu (Tamil Nadu) 51.74 seconds, Gurudeep Singh (Tamil Nadu) 52.02 seconds, Bhushan Patil (Karnataka) 52.07 seconds.
U20: Shot Put (6kg): Sai Kiran A (Telangana) 18.42m, Anuj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 18.31m, Omkar Prasad Nand (Odisha) 18.24m.
U18: Boys: 200m: Chiranth P (Karnataka) 21.81 seconds, Jashanpreet Singh (Punjab) 21.94 seconds, Seshu Duddu (Andhra Pradesh) 22.09 seconds.
U18: Boys: Discus throw (1.5kg): Nishchay (Haryana) 63.69m (meet record. previous record of 60.17m set by Atul in 2022 in Guwahati), Vishal Kumar (Rajasthan) 60.90m, Usman Ali Khan (Madhya Pradesh) 58.81m.
U18: Boys: 5km race walk: Tushar Panwar (Uttarakhand) 20:11.35 seconds, Firdous Alam (Assam) 20:16.30 seconds, Prashant Kumar (Madhya Pradesh) 20:21.73 seconds.
U16: Boys: Pentathlon: Imran Alam (Bihar) 3911 points, Tanish (Uttar Pradesh) 3891 points, Hitesh Singh (Uttarakhand) 3874 points.
Women
U20: 200m: Neeru Pathak (Uttar Pradesh) 24.05 seconds (meet record. previous record of 24.14 seconds by Sakshi Chavan in 2024), Suba Dharsini S (Tamil Nadu) 24.35 seconds, Kajal Vaja (Gujarat) 24.74 seconds.
U20: 800m: Vaishnavi Rawal (Karnataka) 2:07.84 seconds, Payal (Haryana) 2:08.27 seconds, Geetika Dahiya (Haryana) 2:09.18 seconds.
U20: 400m hurdles: Muskan (Haryana) 1:01.75 seconds, Apurva Naik (Karnataka) 1:02.56 seconds, G Prithika (Tamil Nadu) 1:02.79 seconds.
U20: Shot put (4kg): Tamanna (Haryana) 15.08m, Anupriya VS (Kerala) 14.49m, Alka Singh (Bihar) 14.03m.
U20: Heptathlon: Sriteja Tholem (Telangana) 4654 points, Harshita (Delhi) 4383 points, Priya (Haryana) 4173 points.
U18: Girls: 200m: Aarti (Haryana) 24.25 seconds, Monika Raha (West Bengal) 24.75 seconds, Rashi Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 24.91 seconds.
U18: Girls: 3,000m race walk: Ranjana Yadav (Madhya Pradesh) 13:41.55 seconds, Vedanti Mangutkar (Maharashtra) 13:45.07 seconds, Sumanpreet Kaur (Punjab) 13:51.63 seconds.
U16: Girls: Pentathlon: Anamika Ajesh (Kerala) 4096 points, Prema Venkatesan (Tamil Nadu) 3935 points, Sathvika Sakthivel (Tamil Nadu) 3883 points.
