Three athletes from the High Performance Centre (HPC) in Bhubaneswar- Amlan Borgohain, Jyothi Yarraji and Siddhanth Thingalaya- returned with Gold medals, while another, Moumita Mondal won a silver at the Federation Cup in Calicut, Kerala last week.

Several other athletes from the Reliance Foundation HPC recorded Personal Bests (PBs) and a couple narrowly missed out on medals, giving coach Head Coach James Hillier plenty of reason to be proud of his wards, while ruing some missed opportunities.

“It’s hard for me to say I’m satisfied because as a coach you always want more,” said Hillier. “We had some exceptional individual performances at the competition but as a whole, we actually had some pretty rotten luck.”

Among the Gold medal winners, Borgohain produced a sizzling sprint to erase the national record of 20.63 seconds by winning the 200 metres in 20.52 seconds.

While Borgohain celebrated his national record, Yarraji was in tears at the completion of her race, despite clinching Gold in the 100m hurdles. Her timing of 13.09 seconds obliterated the existing national record of 13.38 seconds but the mark was denied since the tail-wind was marginally above the permitted limit. The blow was cushioned to an extent as Mondal, who is also Yarraji’s training partner, claimed silver with a timing of 13.78 seconds, making it a remarkable 1-2 for HPC athletes.

Thingalaya, who at 31 is one of the veterans of the national circuit, returned to competition after two and half years to win the 110m hurdles in 14.08 seconds. In the same category, Graceson Jeeva ran a PB of 14.67 seconds to finish fourth. At just 19, Hillier has identified him as a bright prospect for the future.

High Jumper Swadhin Majhi also returned with a PB of 2.10 metres to finish fifth, despite battling with a bruised heel that restricted his training over the last month. 3000m Steeplechase Susmita Tiga, the newest addition to the HPC, ran a PB of 11.23.10 to finish in fourth place. Another athlete to narrowly miss out on a bronze was Pragyan Sahu in the 400m hurdles. Long Jumpers Sabita Toppo and Manisha Merel finished outside the medals as this competition was meant to provide them experience and exposure at the top level.