Preeja Sreedharan Athlete
Preeja Sreedharan (born 13 March 1982 at Mullakkanam, Kerala) is an Indian long-distance runner. She won gold medal in the 10000 meter event and Silver in 5000 metres in the Guangzhou Asian Games. She holds Indian National Record for both 5000 and 10,000 metres. At the 2006 Asian Games she finished fifth in both the 5000 and the 10,000 metres. At the 2007 Asian Championships at Amman she won the silver medal in the 10,000 metres. She qualified for the Beijing Olympics in June 2008 after achieving a B qualifying mark for the Games. She finished twenty-fifth at the Olympic 10,000 metres. Her personal best for the 10,000 metres is 31:50:28 minutes in Guangzhou Asian Games. This is the current Indian national record. Preeja has got 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 ex- financial minister K. M. Mani. She graduated from Alphonsa College, Pala.