Just after 5pm on Sunday, the phone rang inside Odisha’s Secretary of Sports Sachin Jadhav’s office on the third floor of the Kalinga Hockey Stadium. He had been waiting for that call. Jadhav listened, before answering excitedly: “Congratulations. He has done it. Yes, I’ll be there.”
The caller was passing on the news that Pratik Maharana, one of Odisha’s top sprinting talents, had just won the National U20 Junior Championships 200m title at the Kalinga Stadium – the venue of the track and field competition. It is barely 500m from where Sachin Jadhav sat. For the state and its coaches, it was a sort of vindication. Maharana had been a promising talent since he began competing on the U14 circuit. The 200m national junior title catapulted him from being a mere promise to someone ready to take a giant step up – to the senior stage.
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Inside the Kalinga Stadium, the venue of the National Junior Athletics Championships, Maharana’s win added a touch of hysteria to the proceedings. Maharana’s interviews continued. There was a sense of relief that Odisha had delivered – not just a gold medal, but also proof that the promise shown by Maharana had borne
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