India’s star triathlete at the Commonwealth Games 2022, Pragnya Mohan spent six months in Australia and Spain to train in the open waters.
Pragnya, lovingly called Praggers, trained with Fluid Movements in 2017 and did her first open water swim in Australia.
The 27-year-old qualified chartered accountant had suffered five major road accidents during training or competing and also undergone two surgeries that left metal rods inserted in her wrist and leg.
However, 5 accidents and 2 surgeries couldn’t break Pragnya’s spirit and she lead India’s triathlon team which made its debut at the CWG 2022.
Sarah Storey, Australia’s Deputy High Commissioner to India, tweeted: “Australian and Indian women athletes are doing our countries proud at #CWG2022.”
Pragnya told The Bridge that her father is her coach and strength since childhood:
“My father, Pratap Mohan, is my coach whenever I am training in India and he is extremely involved…he has been the one pushing me since the beginning.”
Pragnya Mohan and Sanjana Sunil Joshi, who is just 16-year-old and competed on a borrowed bike, finished 26th & 28th respectively in Women’s individual sprint distance (Final) out of 32 contestants.
India sent a four-member Mixed Relay Team — Adarsh M S, Vishwanath Yadav, Sanjana Joshi, and Pragnya Mohan — in a sport that incorporates swimming, cycling and running in one race and where the country virtually has no history.
All eyes were set on Pragnya who is the national and South Asian champion and the only Indian to compete in a triathlon World Cup.
Pragnya Mohan is also the first Indian to compete in a World Cup held in Madrid, Spain, in 2019. She told World Triathalon:
“I was proud to be able to race well despite an injury, and to have led my peloton for two thirds of the route. There were people in the crowd cheering for India and that got the adrenaline pumping.”
Pragnya is currently ranked 365 in the world and to qualify for the Olympics she’ll need to be around the top 70.
Team India finished 10th in the Mixed Relay Triathalon event while the Australian team won the Bronze medal.
Triathalon is one of the world’s most popular endurance events which made its debut in the Olympic programme at the 2000 Sydney Games.