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It was only while studying engineering that Pranaya Mohanty first played a sport, mostly for fun. The next time he decided to take it up was to mostly keep a check on his growing waistline, after spending long sedentary hours while employed as a techie.
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In 2015, it was cycling that appealed to Mohanty at first, while running was mostly to break the monotony of chasing a single sport. After multiple brevets over the next few months, he finished the 1,200km Paris-Brest-Paris event as one of the fastest Indians. Three years later, circumstances led to running becoming his primary sport and he’s been making rapid progress ever since.
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Driven to improve on each performance, distances hardly matter to Mohanty. After knocking off the marathons, he turned his attention to the ultra runs. The first 12-hour stadium run was likely to come to a premature end after the first three hours, but guilt got the better of him and he returned to the track to finish it. That was the turning point in his ultra journey and in 2019, he made the cut on the Indian team for the 24-hour World Championships, even as he continues to chase better times on every race these days.
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