Odisha’s Pratik Maharana shines with record-breaking 200m win at U20 Nationals

Odisha’s Pratik Maharana failed to challenge Parth Singh in the 100m final and finished a distant second on the first day of the National Junior Athletics meet in the U20 category.

However, he came back in style and grabbed the 200m gold by crossing the finish line in 21.24s during the fourth day of the event at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. By doing so, he also broke the meet record of 21.26s that was achieved by Veeresh Mathur in 2023 and qualified for the U20 World Championships. Even in the semifinals, he topped the timings by finishing in 21.56s. The silver and bronze, meanwhile, went to Punjab’s Jasjit Singh Dhillon (21.59s) and Maharashtra’s Arnav Takalkar (21.65s), respectively. Maharana, though, isn’t alien to top-of-the-podium finishes. He grabbed the 200m gold in the U18 category during the last edition of the tournament and in the National Youth Athletics Championships held in Bilaspur. “It’s been a long year, and my knees became tight, so I couldn’t give my best during the 100m finals. But I knew I could do it during the 200m, and I’m very happy to have achieved my target in front of the home crowd,” said Maharana to TOI.

The 18-year-old is a resident of Bargarh, Odisha, and has been training under coach Siba Prasad Mishra for the past eight years. They, however, shifted base to Rourkela after he got selected under the Athletics Project of Odisha last year. While he has a long way to go, Maharana, who was spotted by his coach while playing cricket, is now just focused on doing well at the junior worlds meet next year. Besides Maharana, there were others who set meet records on the penultimate day of the tournament. Neeru Pathak did it in women’s 200m in the U20 category as she crossed the finish line in 24.05s, thus bettering 24.14s set by Sakshi Chavan in 2024. This was her second gold of the event after the 400m title, where she also achieved a meet record. Haryana’s Nishchay achieved the feat in the men’s U18 discus throw with his personal best throw of 63.69m. The previous meet record of 60.17m was set by Atul in 2022. Rajasthan’s Vishal Kumar, winner of silver (60.90m), also improved upon the previous MR, while MP’s Usman Ali Khan settled for bronze (58.81m).

Nishchay, who made the cut for the U20 World Athletics meet, had won the shot put gold (19.48m) earlier in the competition. Later in the day, Deepika bettered her own MR in the women’s javelin in the U20 category with a best throw of 54.16m. Haryana’s Aarti, meanwhile, added the 200m title in the U18 category to the 100m gold she had won earlier and qualified for worlds.