Three star athletes from Odisha bagged two gold and one bronze medals in the 22nd Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championship, held at NS NIS, Patiala from March 5 to 8, 2018. Olympian Dutee Chand lived upto her reputation at the fastest woman of India by winning the 100 metre gold medal with a time of 11.60 seconds.

Dutee, however, missed the 2018 Commonwealth Games qualifying mark of 11.15 seconds. Purnima Hembram won the heptathlon gold with a total of 5,815 points, while Jauna Murmu won 200m bronze with a time of 24.64 seconds. Though as many as 10 athletes from Odisha submitted online entries for this championship, half among them did not participate.

Among other Odisha athletes, who competed, men’s 100 metre record holder Amiya Kumar Mallick finished fifth (10.70 seconds) in his pet event, Jauna Murmu fifth in women’s 400 metre (53.66 seconds) and Parbati Sethi seven in women’s discus (42.62 metre).

Male sprinters Niranjan Mohanty and Abhijit Sahu, long jumper Samrat Sa, female sprinter Srabani Nanda and hurdler Pragyan Prasanti Sahu are other Odisha athletes who did not start despite submitting entries.
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PHOTO: Dutee Chand poses with her 100m gold medal in Patiala on March 6, 2018.