Khelo India Youth Games 2025: Shourya Ambure's winning return to Patna comes with greater maturity and Asian medal
Shourya Ambure is just 15 but already knows a thing or two about the right amount of effort to exert in competition. In a reflection of her maturity in accepting coach Ajit Kulkarni's recommendation of not stretching herself in the quest of a Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) record, she did enough to win 100m hurdles gold on Monday.
At the end of what has been a long season for Shourya Ambure, she scored a facile victory in the final on the opening day of athletics competitions in KIYG 2025 in Bihar. She loved returning to the Patliputra Sports Complex where she had first drawn national attention by winning the crown in the National Youth Championships in March.
'At that time, my Board exams were on, and I skipped two papers to take part in the Nationals because it was a qualification event for the Asian Championship. I hadn't done much training back then, but I believed I could do better,' she recalled of her last visit to Patna when she won gold in a time of 14.55 seconds.
Between the two signposts that she marked in Patna in the span of two months, 15-year-old Shourya made the nation proud at the Asian Youth Championship in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, where she clocked a personal best time of 13.80 seconds and won a bronze medal. She did not push herself in search of another personal best on Monday.
Making her KIYG debut, she recorded a time of 14.33 seconds in the heats. Having felt a tightening of the hamstring and got a massage before the final, she secured gold in in 14.11 seconds, well clear of Sonali Das (West Bengal) and Vishnu Shree NS (Kerala).
'I wanted to do better but I'm happy with my performance. I clocked a decent time tonight. I'm only 15 and have a lot of time in the U18 to break the National Youth Record,' she said referring to the 13.70-second mark set by Tamil Nadu's PM Thabitha back in 2019. 'My coach, who has been guiding me for 10 years, told me to just run and enjoy the race.'
Shourya Ambure is the product of a long-term vision that coach Ajit Kulkarni and her parents Rupali and Avinash Ambure, IPS officers holding high ranks in Maharashtra Police, have shared.
'I started competing in the 80m hurdles in U14 category and continued the same until under-16. I was used to running 80-meter hurdle races. This was only my fourth race in the 100m Hurdles. Now, my goal is to win medals at the Youth Commonwealth Games and Youth Asian Games,' Shourya Ambure said.
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