Preeja Sreedharan

Preeja Sreedharan (born 13 March 1982 at Mullakkanam, Idukki, Kerala) is an Indian long-distance runner. She holds the national records in both the 10,000 metres and 5000 metres disciplines, which she set en route to the gold and silver medals at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. Sreedharan was conferred with the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting honour by the central government in 2011.

Sreedharan's breakthrough came in 2007, when she won the silver medal in both the disciplines at the Asian Athletics Championships. She bettered her personal bests and the Indian national records in both the 10000 and 5000 meters at 2010 Asian Games; she won the gold in the 10000 meters and the silver in 5000 meters. She announced her retirement from international circuit in February 2015.

Personal life

Preeja was born to Sreedharan and Remani in Idukki, Kerala.She belonged to a middle class family. Her father was a manual labourer and died when she was 8 years old. She has an elder brother Pradeep and an elder sister Preethy. After her father's demise her brother had to leave school at 6th standard and take up job in order to meet household expenses. She graduated from Alphonsa College, Pala. She married Dr.Deepak Gopinath on 11 November 2012 at Palakkad, Kerala. Preeja Sreedharan has been employed as a Superintendent by the Southern Railway. The couple have two children, Darshan (born on 2016) and Dhyan (born on 2018).

Career At the 2006 Asian Games, Sreedharan finished fifth in both the 5000 and the 10,000 metres. At the 2007 Asian Championships at Amman she won the silver medals in the two events. She qualified for the Beijing Olympics in June 2008 after achieving a B qualifying mark for the Games and then finished twenty-fifth in the Olympic 10,000 metres. Sreedharan also won the silver medal in 5000 metres at the event. With the time of 15:15.89 minutes, she also bettered the national record in 5000 meters.

Sreedharan was selected as Manorama Newsmaker of the year 2010. The selection was done through an online SMS voting from public. The finalists with Preeja were, Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, Njhanpeedam winner and famous Malayalam poet ONV Kurup and famous politician, and financial minister K. M. Mani.

Sreedharan was the fastest Indian woman at the 2014 Delhi Half Marathon. She also participated at the 2014 Asian Games, but was unable to win any medal. Sreedharan announced her retirement from international competitions in February 2015. She said that she would participate in her last competition at the 2015 National Athletics Championships: "With the next national games, I would leave the track for ever. The decision was taken to focus on family life, I would continue to strive for promoting athletics."

G V Raja Award ( Kerala State ) – 2001

Manorama Newsmaker of the Year ( Kerala State ) – 2011

Jimmy Gorge Award- 2012