Nagpur, May 25
It is a proud moment for the Nagpurians that 17-year-old Sanjana Joshi will represent India in the triathlon in the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held at Birmingham, United Kingdom from June 28 to July 8.
Addressing media persons her coach and international ultra cyclist Dr Amit Samarth said," She is the first female athlete from Nagpur City to be selected for Commonwealth Games. She has been chosen for Sprint Distance Triathlon in which the athlete has to swim, then cycle and then run back-to-back as fast as possible.
The race distance in sprint distance triathlon will be 750 m swimming - 20 km cycling and 5 km run." This is for the first time that India is fielding triathlon team in the the Commonwealth Games.
Talking to media persons Sanjana, a Somalwar Nilkalas student said she was confident of achieving the distance within one hour as she has been doing regular 4 to 5 hour practice under the guidance of Dr Amit samarth of Miles N Millers Endurance SportsAcademy.
She underwent a selection and evaluation camp at Indian Triathlon Federation in Chennai last month. Apart from Sanjana, Pragnya Mohan from Ahmedabad, Gujarat has also been selected for the same event.
On 19th April, a super sprint distance triathlon trial for selection of 2 girls for India representation was organised and Sanjana stood second among the three girls. Then she went thru fitness test. Sanjana is also selected to represent India at the Asian Sprint Triathlon Championship at Sejong, South Korea on June 4.
Miles N Millers to train
tribal students in triathlon
After seeing Sanjana's success Miles N Millers Academy has decided to train tribal students from Lokbiradari Project, Hemalkasa in triathlon and for that they have selected six girls and five boys who have potential to excel in this sport. Dr Samarth Said, " We will take care of their education and training. They will be given admission for three-year physical education course at Jyotiba College of Physical Education". Jitu Nayak , Atul Bhojraj and others were present at the press conference.