National Games: Odisha’s Srabani Nanda wins gold in Women’s 200m, Animesh Kujur bronze in Men’s 200m

Bhubaneswar: Srabani Nanda won the Gold Medal in Women’s 200m at the ongoing National Games in Goa, thereby bringing Odisha’s medal tally to 31 with six gold, ten silver, and fifteen bronze medals. This surpassed their haul of 26 medals from the previous edition of the National Games.

The Athletic success continued with Animesh Kujur who bagged the Bronze in the Men’s 200m. The day also belonged to Odisha’s cycling contingent with Swasti Singh winning bronze in the 10km Scratch Race and following it up with another bronze in the Individual Pursuit event.

Odisha also registered their first medal in Taekwondo on Wednesday evening with Sabita Ramchiary earning the silver medal in the Taekwondo Female U-57kg category.

Following Srabani Nanda and Animesh Kujur’s triumphs, Odisha’s athletics haul moves to an impressive six medals including one gold, three silver, and two bronze medals.

Notably, Animesh Kujur is a cadet of the Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Centre, recently he broke the meet record at the 62nd National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru.

Ahead of the National Games, Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Centre Head Coach Martin Owens earlier said, “Animesh Kujur was a certain medal prospect. He’s one of our exciting prospects, rapidly moving up the rankings and it will be exciting to watch him in action.”

In another success, the Odisha Men’s Hockey Team registered their first victory of the campaign with a 3-2 victory against Delhi. The triumph was powered by a brace from Abishek Rana (28’, 55’) and Krishna Panwar (23’) also chipped in with a goal. The team will next be in action on November 4th when they take on West Bengal.

Speaking on the success of the Cycling team, which comprises Swasti Singh and Barsha Rani Barik, Coach Sambrit Mohanty said, “Yes, we are happy with the performance, but I think we missed out on a gold or a silver by a small margin.  Hopefully, the good form will continue, and we can find more success in the remaining events.”