First Indian Triathlete At the Commonwealth Games

Adip Taware, FY BAMC

Seventeen-year-old Sanjana Joshi became the first Indian at the Commonwealth Games Triathlon competition. A triathlon is an event consisting of swimming, biking and running. Athletes have to complete the event in a set time, with the fastest being the winner. Triathlon is a popular sport for athletes of all levels of fitness and is a great way to combine cardio and strength-training. Triathlon can be done as an individual event or as part of a relay.

Sanjana finished 28th in the category of elite women, she finished the race in 1 hour and 9 minutes. She was able to complete 750 meters of swimming in 11 minutes, 20 kilometers of cycling in 33 minutes, and 5 kilometers of running in 23 minutes. Sanjana was trained at Miles N Milers Endurance Sports Academy under Dr. Amit Samarath and is a student of Somalwar Nikalas School, Nagpur. She underwent a selection and evaluation camp organized by the Indian Triathlon Federation in Chennai in April; after her splendid performance in this event, she was then selected for the Commonwealth Games.

Dr. Amit Samarath, Sanjana’s coach, was pleased with her performance and rated her as one of the most talented triathletes in the country. He said, “During the trials, participants went through a fitness test, ECG test, and fitness assessment which included push-ups and pull-ups. The participants also underwent VO2 max tests on treadmills, anthropometry, and critical swim speed tests”. He added, “it is a matter of great pride for Nagpur and Miles N Milers Endurance Sports Academy to have an athlete representing the country at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 at such a young age”. It was also heartwarming to know that Sanjana had borrowed her coach’s cycle for the games and completed 1/3rd of the race on borrowed material. Sanjana is a very dedicated and disciplined athlete; she is steadily improving and can regularly compete at the highest level. Even Sanjana was happy when she made the cut for the Indian team selection and was pretty excited to represent her own country on such a big occasion. Before representing the Commonwealth Games, she also did various triathlons like the South Asian Championship, Asian Triathlon Cup, and Asian Sprint Triathlon Championship in South Korea, where she finished second.

Students of SOMC, MIT-WPU, got a chance to interview Sanjana Joshi where she was asked how she felt training for this rigorous event and what her schedule was for the past months, she replied “For the selection trials, I was working very hard, and it is essential to strive in trials because it gives you a small glimpse on how the big race is going to be, my coach planned every schedule for me including the duration of swimming, cycling, running and trained me day & night. After getting selected for trails, there were two camps where I had to train, one was in Pune, and one was in Chennai. Compared to Chennai’s training camp, the Pune camp was much more rigorous as it comes under army services, and for Chennai’s camp, it was mostly tapering down before the event. It was more fun in the Chennai camp, but Pune’s camp was tougher. I would say It was more fruitful and helped me a lot with tuning my body for the race”.