Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik felicitated Odisha’s track and field athlete Bapi Hansda with a cash award of Rs 25 Lakhs for winning gold in the 400m hurdles at the recently concluded 18th National Youth Athletics Championship.
He completed the 400m hurdles with a clock time of 51.90 sec.
With this timing, Bapi is now ranked World No 1 in under 18 years age category. This achievement qualified Bapi for Asian Youth Athletics Championship, which is scheduled in Uzbekistan later this year in April.
Congratulating Bapi, Chief Minister lauded him for his dedication and hard work and inspiring budding athletes.
The 17-year-old Bapi hails from Baleswar and is the youngest of five siblings. After lot of personal struggles, he found his passion for athletics and was spotted by the HPC for his talent and inducted into the Kalinga Stadium in 2019.
Within a short period, he displayed exceptional talent and work ethics which impressed the coaches. Since then he is a part of the Endurance training program at the athletic High Performance Centre and he also got the opportunity to train with some of India’s top International athletes at Ooty, earlier.