Bapi Hansda makes history at Youth C'ships;1st Indian to win silver

Tashkent: Writing history, an Indian athlete from Odisha, Bapi Hansda, won silver in 400m hurdles at the 5th Youth Athletics Championships here in Uzbekistan on Sunday. He finished in 51.38 seconds, his personal best, while Sri Lanka's Kuda Liyanage Ayomal won bronze with 51.40 secs while Qatar's Mahamat Abakar Abdrahman won the gold with 50.91 secs.

Hansda becomes the first Indian to win a silver in the mentioned event, Asian News International reports.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated Hansda and said that he is an inspiring example for other athletes. He overcame challenges in his personal life and achieved the feat, the CM said and added that he wishes Hansda, his coaches and the entire team of Odisha Reliance Foundation HPC the very best.

"I am happy that our investment in the sports ecosystem has started showing results," ANI quoted the state premier.

Hansda is a native of Basta in Balasore, a coastal district of the northernmost region of Odisha. He is with the Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Centre, working in the 400m hurdles. Recently he won gold at the 18th National Youth Championship, clocking 51.90 secs. The timing made him World No.1 under -18 and qualified him for Asian Youth Athletics Championship.

Patnaik had awarded Hansda with a cash award of Rs 25 lakhs recently, post his spectacular performance in the Nationals.

Hansda's coach Martin Owens reviewed his performance on Sunday and said that he ran a brave race in lane 8. He made a gutsy effort because he was running blind in lane 8 after finishing third in the heats the day before. Though he was a little behind midway, he made a brilliant finish. Seeing that it was only his fifth attempt, Hansda made a fantastic achievement, the coach said.