Four para athletes from Odisha made the State proud, bagging a total of eight medals at the 5th Indian Open Para Athletics International Championship, which concluded at Shree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru today.

The eight medals featured five gold, two silver and one bronze. Winners of these medals were Jayanti Behera, Pankaj Bhue, Suchitra Parida and Prafulla Kumar Khandayatray.

Jayanti justified his reputation as the para-athletics star of Odisha, bagging a glorious treble, adding the womens 200m gold on the final day to her earlier victories in 100m and 400m sprint. She won the 200m event in the T-35/46/47 combined category, clocking 26.77 seconds.

Pankaj, a visually-impaired international cricketer-cum-athlete, however, emerged as an extraordinary achiever of the championship, winning two gold and one silver medals. It would have been another treble by an Odisha competitor if he had won the 100m gold, instead of silver.

Pankaj won his second gold medal today in mens T-13 category of the 200m sprint with a timing of 26.10 seconds. Earlier, he won his first gold medal in mens long jump with an effort of 5.67 metres.

Coaches Markanda Reddy and Bishnu Prasad Mishra also played important roles in Odisha athletes achiving outstanding success in the Indian Open International Championship.

It may be noted that, Reddy is a Paralympian and Bishnu is the personal coach of sprinter Jayanti. Both the coaches expressed their gratitude to the State Government for funding the participation of the Odisha squad.
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PHOTO: Odisha athletes and their coaches pose after bagging eight medal for the country at the 5th Indian Open Para Athletics International Championship in Bengluru.