Balasore: Prangya Prasanti Sahu, who claimed the silver medal in the 100m hurdles event at the Asian Junior Athletics Campionship in Colombo last week, asked for better facilities and sponsors to further her development.

The district administration on Wednesday felicitated Sahu following her success, handing over a trophy and a citation to jer.

During the ceremony, Sahu asked the administration to develop better facilities for practice.

"I need synthetic tracks for practice to be able to compete and win medals in national and international events," she said.

"I practise for about five hours a day at Permit Field ground under my coach Kalinga Mahapatra."

Sahu clocked 14.98 seconds on her way to the silver medal in Sri Lanka.

Mahapatra said: "She has the potential and she can go further up if all the essential things are provided."

A first year Physics honours student at Remuna College, Sahu became the second hurdler from the state to take part in an international event after Olympian Anuradha Biswal.

President of Remuna College governing body, Pradipta Panda, said: "She has tremendous potential and needs encouragement."

"She has won several medals in athletics. She won silver in the 110m hurdles in the National Junior Athletics Championships in Coimbatore. She needs sponsorships ," Sahu's father, Partha Sarathi, said.

Additional district magistrate Manas Ranjan Padhi, who was present during the ceremnoy, said: "We are trying to arrange sponsorships for her through local industries and companies as she needs money to move to a place where synthetic tracks are available for practice."