Junior National Athletics: Pratik Maharana strikes gold

Bhubaneswar: Ace Odisha sprinter Pratik Maharana lived upto expectations with a spectacular performance in front of his home crowd here at the Kalinga Stadium on Monday.Odisha tourism packages

The 18-year-old Pratik scorched the track to clinch the 200m gold medal in Men’s U-20 category at the 40th National Junior Athletics Championships 2025.

Pratik stopped the clock at 21.24 seconds, which bettered the meet record of 21.25.

The Odisha boy also achieved the U-20 World Championship qualification mark of 21.26 seconds. Pratik will thus be representing India in next year’s World Athletics U-20 Championships to be held in Eugene, USA, from August 5-9, 2026.

On the opening day of the Junior Nationals, Pratik had managed a silver medal in Men’s U-20 100m event, with a timing of 10.72 seconds.

 “I had run the 100m in 10.72 seconds to win silver. Today, I corrected mistakes I made in 100m to finish first in 200m in 21.24 seconds,” an ecstatic Pratik said after his victory.

Another Odisha athlete Omkar Prasad Nanda bagged bronze medal in the U-20 Men’s Shot Put competition.

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