TV
Odisha has produced several great athletes like Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, Amiya Malik, and Jauna Murmu.
Meet 17-year-old Bapi Hansda from Basta area in Balasore district. He is another emerging athlete from the State who has shown enough promise during his fledgling career to carry forward Odish’a legacy in athletics.
Bapi has recently won a historic silver medal in the men’s 400m hurdles event at the Asian Under-18 Athletics Championships in Tashkent. He secured the second position in the mega event with a personal best timing of 51.38 seconds.
Bapi first came to the limelight in March last when he won the 400m hurdles race at the 18th National Youth Athletics Championships in Udupi.
Based on his brilliant performance in the tournament, Bapi qualified for the Asian Under-18 Athletics Championships. Subsequently, the talented athlete impressed everyone with his performance in the mega event.
Well, the young runner’s journey so far has not been a bed of roses. The youngest of five siblings, Bapi grew up in poverty and endured his share of struggles after losing his father in 2008.
Athletics caught his fancy from a very young age. Soon enough, the emerging athlete’s struggles and talents shone through.
Bapi was spotted by the Odisha High-Performance Center in 2019. Since then, he has been training under eminent coach Martin Owens. He has taken remarkable strides in the 400m hurdles and shown a lot of promise within a very short span of time.
“I joined SAI hostel in 2019. Next year, I gave a trial at Reliance High-Performance Center. After clearing the trial, I joined Reliance HPC and trained in 800m for two years. However, I didn’t have any improvement in that event. After consultation with the coach, I changed my event,” said Bapi.
Buoyed by his performance in the Asian Under-18 Athletics Championships, the promising athlete has now set his sights on upcoming mega events like the Commonwealth Youth Games 2023 and the Junior World Championships next year.
“I have been training in 400m hurdles with my coach Martin Owens for the last four months. Recently, I have won a silver medal in an international tournament. My confidence level is sky-high now. I am preparing for the upcoming Commonwealth Youth Games in August,” Bapi said.
Coach Owens is also optimistic about Bapi’s prospects in the upcoming mega events too.
“We will be looking for the Commonwealth Championships in August and then prepare for the Junior World Championships next year. This kid has a lot of potential. I am hopeful that he will perform well in both tournaments,” said Owens.
