Indian athletes exhibited glittering performance in the recently-concluded SAAF Junior Athletics meet in Chennai winning five medals. Especially all the athletes from Odisha Reliance Foundation's High-Performance Centre won medals in the competition. 

Jayaram won a brace of medals, a bronze in the men's 100m event, and a silver medal in the men’s 4X100 meter relay event, where his fellow Odisha-RF HPC athlete Mahendra Santa also won a medal.

Sabita Toppo claimed silver in the women’s 100m hurdles event in an eye-catching display and Laxmipriya Kisan also acquired a silver medal in the women’s 800m event.

Martin Owens, head coach of Odisha-RF HPC said, “The SAFF Junior Athletics Championships was a really good meet and a really good opportunity for some young athletes to represent India for the first time.”

He praised Jayaram a lot commenting, that Jayaram ran exceptionally well. He was up against two very high-quality Sri Lankan sprinters, who like Jayaram had taken part in the Junior World Championships. He ran his best race of the season so far, so I was very pleased with his effort.”

According to the coach, Laxmipriya who was called up in the eleventh hour dished out an inspiring performance. 

The coach however termed Sabita’s performance as the best among the Indian athletes as she ran under 14s for the first time. “When she is in tip-top condition, she does very well. I am really proud of the team here in Odisha for preparing the athletes so well.” 

The Odisha-RF HPC, is a strong collaborative effort of the Odisha Government and Reliance Foundation, to improve the standard of athletics across the state and produce home-grown athletes who can achieve both national and international success.