The Reliance Foundation Odisha Athletics High Performance Center (HPC) in Bhubaneswar is not even a year old but already setting their sights high. They are now aiming for a right medal haul at the 2023 Olympics as well as the 2026 Youth Olympics.
Athletes training at the Centre have claimed a total of 25 medals including 10 gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals at the Odisha State championships in Cuttack, in addition to two golds and a bronze at the Junior National Championships in Vijayawada in 2019.
At the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) National championships in Mumbai in January this year, a further 13 medals, including four gold, three sliver and six bronze, came from HPC athletes.
The HPC is a collaborative effort of the Odisha Government and the Reliance Foundation, who signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2018 with the aim to improve the standard of athletics across the state and produce home-grown athletes who can achieve both national and international success.
“It (HPC) will create a sustainable development and support system to identify, nurture and maximize the potential of athletes from grass roots to elite level," HPC head coach James Hillier said, while discussing the tournament goals and targets.
The Centre uses Reliance's nationwide grassroots development initiative – RF Youth Sports, where 30,000 athletes participated as its primary scouting platform. To better manage talent, athletes have been divided into a ‘Monitoring Cohort’ and ‘Academy’.
Athletes in the Academy group are 16 years or older and identified at various stages of development – from being two years away from winning a national level medal to those with established international credentials. There are seven such athletes (four from Odisha) at the HPC academy currently, who live at the Kalinga stadium.
Nine more have been identified from a trial camp that was held for best young athletes in the state in February and they will be integrated when it is safe to do so, keeping COVID-19 protocol in mind.
The ‘Monitoring Cohort’ has athletes aged 13-17, identified as being a maximum of five years away from winning a national level medal. Twenty such athletes from all over Odisha are currently part of the group and reside at the Bhubaneswar state sports hostel.
Sabita Toppo, who won the pentathlon gold while breaking the national record in the U-16 category and Rajendra Sahu who won a gold and bronze in the pentathlon and long jump U-14 categories respectively at the National Championships are both products of this initiative.
For now, the HPC is focused on Sprints, Hurdles, and middle distance running but further expansion will see the inclusion of a jumps-and-throws programme as well.
“We are confident we will unearth a new generation of stars from the state, athletes that can go ahead and win medals for India in the future,” James Hillier said.
