Athletics
Jinson Johnson, Kishore Kumar Jena breach Asian Games qualifying mark
The veteran Jinson Johnson and the upcoming Kishore Jena from the Reliance Foundation stable were among the 70 athletes who breached Asian Games marks at the National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships.
Jinson Johnson and Kishore Kumar Jena
Jinson Johnson, the 32-year-old 1500m runner on a comeback trail, and Kishore Jena, one of the latest entrants into the 80m javelin club from India, were among those to breach the Asian Games qualifying marks on the final day of action at the 62nd National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships in Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar.
Jinson Johnson continued his unbeaten run in 2023 as he breached the Asian Games qualification standard, clinching gold in the 1500m with a timing of 3:42.77, which was also under the Asian Games qualification standard of 3:47.84.
The 27-year-old Kishore Kumar Jena won a silver medal along with surpassing the qualifying mark for Asian Games through a personal best in the Javelin Throw. Jena's best effort was 82.87m in a field which saw three throwers cross the 80m mark.
READ | 70 athletes achieve Asian Games qualification standards
Otherwise too, Reliance Foundation's (RF) athletes put in a splendid display in a full-strength field at the 62nd Inter-State Athletics Championships to end their campaign with 20 medals including 8 gold, 8 silver, and 4 bronze medals. In a strong showing, seven athletes from RF breached the Asian Games qualifying mark, while five shattered meet records in their events.
Martin Owens, Head Coach, Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Center, picked out the efforts of the Odisha men’s and women’s relay teams, which comprised three High-Performance Center athletes as a big highlight.
“The tournament started off very positively with Jyoti winning the women's 100m quite comfortably but frustratingly missing the Asian Games qualification by 400th of a second. She didn't let that knock her down, she came back and won the 100m hurdles easily in the Asian qualifying standard. She topped that off with a silver in the women's 4x100m. The Odisha 4X100m relay team won bronze, which included Sabita, Sukhi and Bonita, all athletes from the Odisha RF HPC.”
READ | Inter-State Athletics: Jyothi, Toor, Sreeshankar headline top class show
Amlan Borgohain’s glorious run of form saw him win gold in the 200m event with a time of 20.71s. His effort shattered Anil Kumar’s 23-year-old meet record of 20.80s. Jyothi Yarraji and Mohammed Afsal also breezed past the qualification standard for the Asian Games in the women’s 100m hurdles and men’s 800m events respectively.
From the endurance program, Karthik Kumar made the cut in the 10000m event with respect to the qualification mark for the Asian Games.
Young Tejas Shirse proved his mettle with a gold medal-winning effort in the men’s 110m hurdles event, running a time of 13.87s.
Reliance Foundation’s athletes also starred for their respective states in the relay events. The trio of Abhishek Dalabehera, Laluprasad Bhoi and DM Jayaram powered Odisha to a silver in the men’s 4x100m relay, while Sabita Toppo, Bonita Lakra and Sukhi Baskey were a part of the Odisha women’s 4x100m relay team that struck bronze.
