Odisha bagged a Gold medal at the Senior National Aquatic Championships 2024

Bhubaneswar: Bringing laurels to the state, Team Odisha bagged Gold medal in the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay at the Senior National Aquatic Championships 2024.

Pratyasa Ray, Mannata Mishra, Shristi Upadhyay, and Sonia Patel were part of the swimming team. The sporting event was held in Mangaluru. The four swimmers clocked a timing of 4:27:90 and edged out Maharashtra, who finished at 4:28:18 in the 4 x 100m medley relay.

Shristi Upadhaya, a 22-year-old who has been training at JSW IIS Odisha satellite centre said, “It was so close in the last lap. We had a four-second lead, but then the Maharashtra team caught up and our heartbeats shot up in anticipation. We just closed our eyes, praying that Sonia touched the pads first. It was very emotional to finally achieve something we had worked for over 2 years.”

The Odisha IIS Swimming High-Performance Centre in Odisha aims to develop a robust culture for swimming and produce world-class swimmers from the state. In addition to highly rated coaches, the team includes a Sports Science staff to ensure the well-rounded development of their athletes.

Shrishti used to train in West Bengal before she shifted back to her home state in 2022 to further her growth as a swimmer at the Odisha IIS Swimming High-Performance Centre.

Sandeep Sejwal, an Olympian in 2008, Asian Games medalist in 2014 and National Champion for 15 years in a row, is the Head Coach for the Odisha IIS Swimming High Performance Centre. He works alongside Technical Director Douglas Eager, who boasts over 40+ years of experience in coaching, to help develop the swimmers under their care.