Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s promising sprinter Animesh Kujur has clinched Bronze in 200m sprint at the Asian Athletics Championships 2025 at Gumi in South Korea.

Kujur won the medal after clocking an impressive 20.32 seconds and created a new national record.

“I am really proud of winning the bronze medal in my first ever major international championship. At the start line, I was in a good mental space and felt confident in my abilities. I kept composure throughout the final race and was pleased to see myself break the national record once again. I think this is just a start and I want to reach greater heights in the near future,” said Kujur.

Kujur had been trained at the Reliance Foundation High Performance Centre at Kalinga Stadium in the capital city here.

"Animesh did exceptionally well at Gumi in South Africa today and demonstrated a high level of maturity for a 21-year-old in his first ever major championships. The bronze medal is an outstanding achievement for the whole high-performance centre team and everybody involved in Odisha,” said Martin Owens, Head Coach, Odisha Reliance Foundation High Performance Centre.  

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has congratulated Kujur for his achievement at the Asian Athletics Championships 2025.

“Congratulations to Odisha athlete Animesh Kujur on clinching Bronze medal in 200m sprint after clocking an impressive 20.32 seconds at the Asian Athletics Championships in South Korea and creating a new national record. He has made the entire nation proud with this achievement. May he continue to scale new heights in his sporting career. Wishing him all the best for future events,” said the Chief Minister in a social media (X) post.

It is worth mentioning here that Kujur had excelled in the men’s 100m and 200m events at the Indian Grand Prix 2 at LNCPE Campus in Trivandrum in Kerala earlier in this month.

The 21-year-old national record-holder in the men’s 200m emerged fastest runner of the one-day event. He won the short dash in 10.31 seconds and the 200m in 20.55 seconds at the Trivandrum event.