Prabir Mahato, a resident of Jharkhand, is running Marathons in Europe, ever since he joined Politecnico Di Milano University, Italy, and won many medals in a short span of two and a half years while pursuing a master’s degree in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology in Europe.
Prabir had participated in “Firenze marathon Florence, Italy,” which is a Silver label road race affiliated to the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation), where top runners from Kenya, Eritrea, Ethopia, Italy and other nations worldwide participate.
Recalling his first marathon, Prabir said, “I was very nervous. There were 12,000 participants in this race of 42.195 km and I was the only one from India. The bus which I had booked to Florence was at 4 am. I had to wait outside in the bone chilling cold night at the bus station under the portico for 3.30 hours.”
He further said that he had to start with the last bunch of runners. “First 5-7 kms were like jogging with 12,000 people starting the race, there was no space to get a way through. I had to start the race from behind. I took 3:17:27 and was ranked 1066. At the end, I received the finisher medal,” he added. Stefano Baldini, who was the Summer Olympic Champion in marathon at Athens 2004, congratulated Prabir for his performance and handed him medal after the race.
Prabir belongs to a middle-class family and faces difficulty in continuing Marathon as it needs minimum requirements like shoes, t-shirts, balance diet etc. His father Harendra Mahato is a lawyer and practicing in Jharkhand High Court. “I wish some PSUs like Central Coalfields limited sponsor me for few years, so that it may be easier for me to continue practising for Marathon. Even I go for coaching to ensure medals in Olympic. CCl has history of supporting sportsman from Jharkhand. I learnt that Jharkhand Govt. and CCl had signed MoU for promoting budding sportsman from Jharkhand and around 178 such players are practicing in Hotwar Sports Complex,” Prabir said.
After completing Plus-Two from St. Xavier’s School in 2008, Prabir went to M.S Ramaiah Institute of Technology and completed Chemical Engineering in 2013. Prabir worked in an IT company for a brief period in Chennai and Coimbatore.