Pragnya Mohan

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Pragnya Mohan
Pragnya Mohan Madrid World Cup 2019.jpg
Mohan at the 2019 Madrid Triathlon World Cup
Personal information
National team India
Born (1994-10-19) 19 October 1994 (age 29)
Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India
Home townAhmedabad, Gujarat
EducationInstitute of Chartered Accountants of India
Sport
Country India
SportTriathlon

Pragnya Mohan (born 19 October 1994) is an Indian triathlete from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. In 2019, she became the first triathlete to represent India in the Triathlon World Cup. She is the current South Asian triathlon champion, multiple times national champion and has won gold medals at the South Asian Games and the National Games.

In 2015, she was decorated with the Eklavya Award (Senior), the highest state sports award. She is also a qualified Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Early career[edit]

Mohan was born on 19 October 1994 in Ankleshwar, Gujarat.[1] She started swimming at the age of two, learning it in the pool of Modiguard township.[2] Seeing her potential, her parents sent her to a 45-day coaching camp in 2002. Once she mastered the finer aspects of swimming, even being a third grade student she went on to beat the high school students in the distance swimming event organized by her school.[3] She started competitive swimming at the age of eight by participating in the CBSE west zone competition in Alwar.[4] In 2003, after her family shifted to Atul, Gujarat, she was left without a coach and had to train on her own in the township of Atul Limited. Mohan steadily improved her performance in state meets going from bronze to gold. In 2006, she qualified for the swimming nationals for the first time.[5]

In 2004, Mohan participated in her school's 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) mini marathon finishing second. Thereafter she started endurance running.[6] In 2007, when her father joined Cadila Pharmaceuticals, the family moved to Ahmedabad. Within seventy-five days of coming under the tutelage of Kamlesh Nanavati and training alongside national champions Vandita Dhariyal and Maana Patel, she finished first in the state championship.[7] Combining the sports of swimming and running, she won the bronze medal in the sub-junior national aquathlon in 2008.[8]

She started cycling in her high school years. In January, 2013, she won the inaugural 50 kilometres (31 mi) cycle race organized by Amdavad Municipal Corporation.[8][9] She has won a total of 127 state championship medals in various disciplines. In December 2013, she won the gold medal in the women's category of 24th Gujarat State Aquathlon qualifying for the 2014 Senior National Triathlon Championship.[10]

Triathlon career[edit]

Pragnya Mohan cycling in Melbourne

Mohan won the gold medal in the 2014 Senior National Triathlon Championship held at Nashik, Maharashtra.[11] Subsequently she clinched a silver medal at her maiden international meet - 2014 South Asian Triathlon Championship held at Pokhara, Nepal.[12]

While representing her home state Gujarat, she won a gold medal in the 2015 National Games held at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala from 31 January to 14 February 2015.[13] In August 2015, the Government of Gujarat in light of Mohan's exceptional performance at national and international level, conferred her with its highest state sports award, the Eklavya Award (Senior).[14]

She started the year 2018 by finishing second in the 2018 Senior National Triathlon Championship held at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.[15] Thereafter she won the silver medal in the 2018 South Asian Triathlon Championship held at Pokhara, Nepal.[16]

Mohan began the year 2019 with winning the 2019 South Asian Triathlon Championship held at Pokhara, Nepal.[17] This performance was her best performance at an international event. With this she qualified and participated in the 2019 Triathlon World Cup held at Madrid, Spain on 5 May 2019.[18] She became the first triathlete to represent India at the World Cup.[19] She went to win the 2019 Senior National Triathlon Championship held at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.[20]

She participated in the 2019 South Asian Games held at Nepal from 1–10 December 2019. Battling stomach cramps, she won the bronze medal in women’s triathlon individual category on 2 December 2019.[21] Two days later, she led the opening leg of the Indian triathlon mixed relay team. Her strong performance of being the fastest amongst the female triathletes led the Indian team to a comfortable gold medal.[22]

Accidents[edit]

Mohan has had four major accidents in her triathlon career, all while cycling on the road. In January 2014, while drafting behind her partner in Ahmedabad, she touched the front riders' rear wheel, fell and got dragged on the road. In March 2015, again in Ahmedabad she was hit by a SUV on the Sardar Patel Ring Road, due to which she got partial amnesia. In December 2017, while Mohan was at a high speed on a steep descent in Melbourne, she tried to dodge a pothole and lost control of the bike, fracturing her thumb. In June 2019, Mohan while cycling in Lleida, Spain lost control of her bike, fell and fractured her wrist bone. In the both the latter cases, she underwent surgery.[23]

Personal life[edit]

Pragnya Mohan speaking at the 2019 TEDx IIM Bangalore

Mohan, while a student of Eklavya School in Class XI choose the science stream. However two years later, she decided to pursue the Chartered accountancy course due to a good return for the time invested and option of self study meant more time for pursuing sports. After clearing her intermediate exam, she spent a year interning in Ernst & Young, a Big Four accounting firm. However due to long hours of work and outstation audits, her sports suffered. In February 2015, she switched firms and in the summer of 2017, she cleared the final exams to qualify as a Chartered Accountant (CA) from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). After which she plunged into training for triathlon full time. While her hometown is in Ahmedabad, she mainly trains in Australia and Spain under the guidance of international coaches Sean Foster and Eva Ledesma.[8][24][25]

Mohan is a public speaker having delivered TEDx talk in IIM Bangalore in 2019 alongside Kavita Krishnamurti, Tejasvi Surya and Komal Nahta. She regularly speaks in ICAI national conferences about the lessons and importance of sports.[9] She used to be a paper presenter at the CA Students National Conference and also bagged the best paper presenter award. She is also a qualified paragliding pilot having done her club pilot course from Kamshet.[4]

She had travelled to Melbourne, Australia in March 2020 to train. She got stuck there due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.[26] Later she decided to stay back as the situation in Melbourne improved and she had access to better training facilities. As of July 2021, she had spent 17 months away from her home in India.[27]

Mohan has been selected by the World Triathlon for their mentee program. As a part of it she is trying to popularize her sport in different parts of India particularly through the use of social media.[27]

References[edit]

  1. Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 238.
  2. Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 230.
  3. Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 231.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 232.
  5. Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 233.
  6. Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 234.
  7. Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 235.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 "24 વર્ષીય પ્રજ્ઞા મોહન 3 કલાક 6 મિનિટમાં ટ્રાયથ્લોન પૂર્ણ કરી ફરીવાર નેશનલ ચેમ્પિયનશિપ જીતી". Divya Bhaskar (in Gujarati). 2 September 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  9. 9.0 9.1 Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 241.
  10. "Pragnya's golden shine". The Times of India. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  11. Singh, Shweta (22 January 2014). "City girl Pragnya wins national triathlon". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  12. Singh, Shweta (6 April 2014). "Gujarat girls rule South Asian Triathlon Championship". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  13. "Gujarat and Services grab triathlon honours". National Games Kerala 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  14. "City's Sports stars felicitated for excellence". Ahmedabad Mirror. 19 August 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  15. "Senior National Triathlon Championship: Pragnya Mohan settles for silver medal". Ahmedabad Mirror. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  16. "City athlete wins silver at South Asian triathlon". The Times of India. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  17. "અમદાવાદની પ્રજ્ઞાએ સાઉથ એશિયન ટ્રાયથ્લોનમાં ગોલ્ડ મેળવ્યો". Sandesh (in Gujarati). 1 May 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  18. Das, Soumitra (5 May 2019). "This is my best performance at an international event: Pragnya Mohan". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  19. Cernuda, Olalla (14 May 2019). "India makes its debut in the World Cup circuit with Pragnya Mohan". World Triathlon. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  20. "સિટીની ગર્લ ટ્રાયથ્લોનમાં નેશનલ ચેમ્પિયન બની". Sandesh (in Gujarati). 8 September 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  21. "Against All Odds". Ahmedabad Mirror. 3 December 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  22. "No pain for a golden gain". Ahmedabad Mirror. 5 December 2020. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  23. Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 244-248.
  24. "પ્રજ્ઞા મોહને સાઉથ એશિયન ગેમ્સમાં વિમેન્સમાં બ્રોન્ઝ- મિક્સ્ડ ટીમ ઈવેન્ટમાં ગોલ્ડ જીત્યો". Divya Bhaskar (in Gujarati). 17 December 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  25. Sivakumar & Ram 2021, p. 237, 240, 248.
  26. Das, Soumitra (10 July 2020). "Melbourne's reimposed lockdown, can't come back now: Pragnya Mohan". The Times of India. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  27. 27.0 27.1 Das, Soumitra (2 July 2021). "Staying away from my family for 14 months hasn't been easy: Pragnya Mohan". The Times of India. Retrieved 16 July 2021.

Bibliography[edit]

Sivakumar, R; Ram, V Pattabhi (February 2021). Nightingales - 2.0: How Eleven Women showed Grit, Guts and Gumption. D Rangaswamy Academy for Fiscal Research. ISBN 978-93-90740-08-6.

External links[edit]

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