Pranav Desai shines in World Para Athletics Grand Prix, gets India gold and silver
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Pranav Desai glared in bright colours during the 12th Fazza Championships World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai when he won the 200m gold and the 100m silver in the sprint for India. The youngster is the first from his handicap classification to clinch medals in the sprint.
Hailing from Thane, Mumbai, the youngster made his personal best besides bringing laurels for India. He completed 200m in 24.96 seconds while cloaked 11.76 seconds in 100m.
Pranav wins despite no training during the lockdown period
The 21-year-old is disabled below the knee in one leg and does not have a complete set of fingers on the hands.
Pranav receives his training under Nilesh Patkar at Thane’s Dadoji Konddeo Stadium. His mentor revealed that the para-athlete managed to pull off the medal despite receiving no training during the lockdown period.
“From March to September last year Pranav couldn’t train under me. What he has achieved is from the training we managed after September,” said Patkar.
As per TOI, Patkar and Pranav’s father Prashant were known to each other, and the latter wanted his son to pick up a sport.
“When Pranav came to me, I did not know what he was capable of doing. But he did well in events for normal people, reaching the finals of both the sprints,” said Patkar. The reports also said that Prashant and Patkar then raised money through crowdfunding to send Pranav to the same meet in Dubai to get a classification.
Pranav had earlier made a celebratory achievement was the Para-Asiad that he attended two years ago. Pranav’s coach Patkar is hopeful of the former clinching the qualification for the Paralympics.
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Sahil Sethi
(278 Articles Published)