Reliance Foundation athletes win 27 medals at National Federation Senior Athletics Competition in stunning display

A total of 14 athletes from Reliance Foundation are now in contention to represent India at the Asian Championships next month after meeting the qualification standard in their events. The Asian Championships are scheduled to be held in Gumi, South Korea from May 27-31.
As many as 10 athletes registered new Personal Bests at the meet in addition to three meet records and Animesh Kujur setting a new national record in the 200m by clocking a time of 20.40s in the final, beating the previous national record which stood in the name of his fellow RF athlete Amlan Borgohain. Amlan won silver on Thursday in a time of 20.80s.

The new meet records were set by Twinkle Chaudhary (Women’s 800m), Sawan Barwal (Men’s 10,000m) and Manikanta Hoblidhar (Men’s 100m), with all three of them making a claim on a berth at the Asian Championships.
Speaking after his national record, Animesh said, “I had a feeling that I would get a good time after the race earlier in the day. My focus is on the World Championships. I felt like I got a really good push today, especially around the 100m mark. I want to thank my coach, Odisha government and my whole team at Reliance Foundation for always supporting me.”

RF athletes had a terrific final day, winning 11 medals to record their best ever tally at the competition. Lauding the display of the athletes as well as the support staff, James Hillier, Athletics Director, Reliance Foundation, said, “Our athletes were really dominant in the sprints, jumps, endurance and the throws events. This is the first competition where we have had our athletes win multiple medals in all these four event areas, so I’m very pleased with our display, which is our best ever at this competition. A total of 14 of our athletes have breached the qualification marks for the Asian Championships, which is an impressive number. A lot of our athletes, including Jyothi, Tejas and Jeswin had niggles and injuries, but all three of them managed to medal. A lot of credit goes to our 22 member support staff, including the assistant coaches, physios, performance managers and strength and conditioning coaches, who are here for helping the athletes get on the track and recover optimally. It took a very strong, collaborative effort to get this result.”

A total of five athletes won multiple medals: Sawan Barwal, Animesh Kujur, Kiran Matre, Moumita Mondal and Seema. Sawan won Gold in both the men’s 5000m and 10000m events, with Kiran winning bronze. Seema also showed impressive endurance to win silver in both the 5000m and 10000m events.
Animesh had previously won silver in the 100m event in the tournament, while Moumita Mondal continued her sensational form this year by winning bronze in heptathlon as well as the long jump event, where she registered a new personal best of 6.45m.

RF also swept the Golds in the hammer throw events, with Damneet Singh’s personal best of 68.30m and Harshita Sehrawat’s season best of 61.65m seeing them finish on top of the podium.

RF also had twin podium finished in the women’s long jump and decathlon events on the final day of action. Ancy Sojan won silver with a leap of 6.46m to also surpass the Asian Championships mark. Yamandeep Sharma and Jashbir Nayak both rewrote their personal bests en route to winning silver and bronze in the decathlon.
Jyothi Yarraji and Tejas Shirse continued their dominance in the sprint hurdles events by cruising to Gold medals, while Jeswin Aldrin also made a successful return to competing in India with a silver in the men’s long jump with a best effort of 7.83m.