In late 2011, a black belt in taekwondo and then at his late teenage Dhananjay Sharma’s sports dream came crashing. During a training session, he had a major fall that led to a slipped disc, almost ending his sports career.

For next six months, Dhananjay couldn’t do any physical activity and it took almost two years to be back on the sports field.

Cut short to March 2022. Ghaziabad resident Dhananjay, 29, holds the national record of covering the maximum distance in 12 hours ultra run – he covered 135.61km running nonstop for 12 hours in the recently held Tuffman Ultra Stadium Run at Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Panchkula.

“When I had a slipped disc it was looking like that my sports career was over. But then running came as redemption for me. On November 29, 2014, I ran in Delhi Half-marathon and completed the 21km route in 1 hour, 37 minutes. Since then there was no looking back and later I even started coaching taekwondo,” recalls Dhananjay, who is working as a taekwondo instructor at Everest Public School, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.     

Last year he switched over to ultra running. In his very first attempt at a stadium ultra run in December 2021 (at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi), Dhananjay created the national record of covering 133km in12 hours.   

In Tuffman stadium run in Panchkula – second ultra race – he bettered his own national record by 2.61km.

“It’s a great feeling. In the first attempt, I created the national record and in the second run, I improved it. This is just a beginning and my next target is to compete at the world level,” says Dhananjay.

“In Panchkula, my running slot was from 4 am to 4 pm. At around noon it was scorching heat, as the temperature touched 32 degrees and for almost an hour, I was struggling to maintain my pace. During that period I even thought of quitting, but as four of my trainees had accompanied me to Panchkula, so I didn’t want their coach to be seen as a quitter. The thought motivated me and eventually, I scripted another national record.”