Athletes' verdict: Odisha best place to compete in India, says 18-year-old Abinaya Rajarajan
But more than the performance what left her speechless was the crowd that came in numbers and filled up the stadium. During the Federation Cup last year, when double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra came down here, the crowd was sparse to say the least. But this time around, it was just the opposite.
They were loud, colourful and boisterous, not something you would associate with the athletics events in the country and it naturally left a mark on the girl from Tamil Nadu.
'Odisha is the best place to compete in India because it's the first time I'm seeing this many audiences. It's even more than what we saw during the Neera Chopra classic. At first, though, I got very nervous because of so many people but I'm very happy that so many people came to watch us,' said Rajrajan, who was also part of the 4x100m relay team that won silver at the Asian Athletics Championships.
Although she spoke of nervousness, there was nothing in sight during the race as she blazed to victory in 11.57s ahead of Shena SS and Nithya Gandhe – both of whom crossed the finishing line in 11.70 seconds.
Besides India's U18 and U20 national record holder, others, too, were overjoyed seeing the turnout, including the likes of Annu Rani, who won the women's javelin event with a throw of 62.01m. She said it was the best event that she had ever participated in and the broad smile at the end of her event said it all.
Meanwhile, another athlete who just couldn't believe her eyes was Odisha's very own Pragyan Prasanti Sahu. The 25-year-old won the 100m hurdles in a time of 13.74 seconds after Nithya Ramraj crashed with the third-last hurdle while leading the race.
Speaking after the event, she said, 'It was amazing to participate in front of the home crowd. I was carrying an injury and wasn't supposed to run but my coach told me to go for it because this is my home ground and I'm so happy to have achieved the win.'
While most of the athletes made good use of the energetic crowd, it wasn't the same for Lalu Prasad Bhoi. 'During the 100m final, there were lots of delays because the crowd wasn't going silent since the other events were going on. It's not their fault but the delays did affect my performance,' said a disgruntled Bhoi, who finished fourth with a timing of 10.54 seconds.
Hopefully, he will learn from this experience and make sure he is able to perform even when the conditions are not in his favour.
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