MADHYA PRADESH : ACK in 2009, 21-year-old Rinku Singh Rajput, a national junior javelin thrower—son of a truck driver, Bramhadin Singh—became the first Indian citizen to turn professional as a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the United States professional baseball league. Over a decade on, another story from eastern Uttar Pradesh is now taking shape. In a village in Varanasi district, a teenage girl is chasing a dream in race walking.
Seventeen-year-old Ranjana Yadav, the daughter of truck driver Rajkumar Yadav, aims to become an international champion race walker. Her journey is driven by her late mother Urmila Devi’s dream and her father’s daily struggles to support the family.
Counted among the most promising athletes at the Madhya Pradesh State Athletics Academy in Bhopal, where she has been training since July 2024 under coach Shiv Kumar Prasad, Ranjana has already made her mark.
In October 2025, she won a silver medal in the 5,000-metre race walk at the Asian Youth Athletics Championship in Bahrain. It was her first international medal.
“Towards the last few laps, when my energy seemed to be sapping even while being among the top three runners, I remembered my mother who always motivated me to believe in myself and potential, ultimately giving the extra energy re-charge which helped me go ahead of the Korean racewalker and nearly beat the top finisher Chinese racewalker in the closing stages,” recounted Ranjana.
She finished the race with a time of 24 minutes 25.88 seconds and dedicated the medal to her mother, who had passed away in July 2024 due to end-stage cancer, just days before Ranjana joined the academy. Now, she is preparing for the upcoming Asian Junior Athletics meet in Hong Kong and the World Under-20 Championship in the US.
“I’ve a mountain to climb, but I’m confident of giving the best results with my mother’s blessings from heaven and father’s regular motivation over the phone, besides the peerless guidance of my Coach Sir,” she said. Her coach, Shiv Kumar Prasad, who has worked with Indian junior and senior teams, believes her
emotional strength is one of her biggest assets. “I’m confident that Ranjana will be the first racewalker girl from our Academy to be among the medals at the Asian Championships in Hong Kong and also perform exceedingly well at the World Championship in the US thereafter,” said Prasad. Ranjana is the youngest of six children in her family. She began sprinting during her school days in her village in Varanasi’s Chaubepur area. Later, she switched to long-distance running and race walking after her seniors noticed her potential.
Her rise in the sport was steady. However, her journey was shaken in 2024 when her mother fell seriously ill and passed away shortly after Ranjana’s birthday. The loss left her deeply affected and unsure whether to continue her training.
Ranjana said, “Since then, I’ve been training hard to fulfil her dream of me becoming a champion racewalker and ensure that my father doesn’t have to drive trucks for days to earn Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000, largely to repay debts of his elder brothers.”