BANGALORE: Had Praneetha Pradeep, not been encouraged by Dhronacharya awardee Uday Prabhu and mentored by V R Beedu, the young Bethany School athlete may not have realised what she is capable of.
When other kids of her age are obsessed with electronic gadgets and movies, this lass is racing to glory. The 14-year-old class 9 student already has five national golds and a bronze medals under her kitty. At the recently concluded Bangalore School Games, Praneetha emerged the Individual champion in the high school girls section, winning three golds in long jump, 100m and 200m.
It was her school coach Manjappa, who was impressed with her show at the School, suggested her to train at the Sree Kanteerava. “I was good in athletics, winning most of the medals in the School. Our coach Manjappa was impressed with my performance and suggested to practice at the Sree Kanteerava,” she recalled.
The 2004 KPMG Inter-School athletics meet was the stepping stone for Praneetha, finishing third in the 100M. After three-years of hard work and dedication under the tutorial of Uday Prabhu, Praneetha announced her arrival into the big stage, with a gold medal winning show at the 2007 Nationals at Jharkhand. She won the triathlon gold in U-14 category and the same year, she won the triathlon bronze in Vijayawada Nationals.
Things took a turn for even better when her mentor Prabhu had to leave his wards for his personal commitments. But the Dhronacharya winner put Praneetha under VR Beedu’s radar. This worked wonders with Praneetha.
“I was introduced to Uday Prabhu sir, who was impressed with my abilities and when he had to leave he recommended me to Indo German Athletics Club to train under VR Beedu,” she said.
She reaped rich rewards in 2008 as she won triathlon gold at the Mysore and Jameshedpur nationals. The following year she showed she is good in long jump too, winning the U-14 gold in Chandigarh Nationals along with a triathlon gold. It wasn’t the end. By the end of 2009, she added another gold to her collection in triathlon at Warangal Nationals.
Praneetha, daughter of Pradeep Naidu a bank employee in Bangalore, has a burning ambition of making it to the Olympics. “I want to participate in the Olympics, want to win medal at the Commonwealth Games. Besides I also want to do good studies,” she said.
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