Bhubaneswar: Five New Meet Record (NMR) rewrites on the opening day of the three day long 70th Odisha State Senior Athletics Championship commenced at Kalinga Stadium here on Wednesday. The Sports and Youth Services department of the Government of Odisha is hosting the sporting fiesta in collaboration with Athletics Association of Odisha.
The Championship witnessed over 900 athletes from across the 30 districts of the state, including 268 women, taking part in the 3-day event. Several students training in the Odisha-Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Centre and sports hostels under the Sports Department are participating in the championship. Participants from Odisha Police, Postal Services, BSNL and KIIT University are competing in the sporting event as well.
Athletes participated in over 40 track and field events across disciplines on the day 1 of the championship.
Pradip Mahanta of Mayurbhanj set a New Meet Record in the Boys Under-20 5000m event with a timing of 14 mins 56.94 secs, Nikhil Das of Cuttack set a New Meet Record in the Boys Under-23 High Jump event with a height of 2.01 metres, Chiranjib Singh of Cuttack set a New Meet Record in the Boys Under-23 Shot Put event with a throw of 13.91 metres, P Arpita Archana Sahoo of KIITS set a New Meet Record in the Girls Under-20 Javelin event with a throw of 42.98 metres, Dhanmati Xess of Sundargarh set a New Meet Record in the Girls Under-23 Javelin event with a throw of 41.67 metres.