Budhia Singh: The marathon boy lost in the streets of Odisha
NEW DELHI: Lights, camera…and then missing in action. The story of Budhia Singh, who had a meteoric rise from the slums of one of India’s poorest states after he ran a record-breaking 65 km from Puri to Bhubaneswar in 2006 at the age of four — finding a place in the Limca Book of Records — is nothing short of a hair-rising drama.
The overnight star suddenly vanished from the magazine covers, athletic events and the streets of Odisha post 2007, almost as suddenly as he had appeared. In the next eight years, the state witnessed the rise and fall of several athletes, including current national champion in women’s 100m Dutee Chand, but little was heard about Budhia.
LIKE ANY OTHER TEEN So where is the Marathon Boy now? Once known as a ‘marathon prodigy’, Budhia, now 13, is just like any other 150-odd children at the Kalinga stadium hostel in Bhubaneswar. He still gets up at 6am, but doesn’t run for kilometres anymore. Hours of rigorous sessions are now down to 1-2 hours of conditioning training per day. But the boy still dreams of an Olympics medal — something he and his mentor-cum-coach Biranchi Das, who was murdered in 2008, had once dreamt together.
“Olympics? Well, he can’t even win his school race these days,” Sambit Mohapatra, a veteran sports journalist tells HT from Bhubaneswar. Confined to a routine life — school, homework and training — at the hostel after being separated from Das in 2007 over allegations of exploitation against the latter, Budhia can’t even recollect how the feat had unfolded around a decade back. Even his hostel coach, Rupanwita Panda, believes there is nothing special about him.
“All I can remember is I had started running at 6am from Puri and reached the capital at 2pm. Rest I can’t recall,” Budhia tells HT from DAV Public School, Chandrasekharpur in the state capital, where he had been studying since UKG under the state government sponsorship.
In India, the average age of a child to participate in a sub-junior competition is around 13, which is Budhia’s current age, but he is yet to participate in any state or national-level competition.
In fact, inspired by Budhia, Rajeswari Das, 14, had created a world record by running 60km at the age of six and won gold in statelevel and silver in national level 100m races. But why Budhia has failed to live up to the expectations so far? “I was trained for marathon by my coach. But at the hostel, I am being trained for 100-200m,” says Budhia, adding that he still misses Das.
Mohapatra, who has covered the story of the young athlete since his first milestone, believes the problem is much deeper than what meets the eyes. “Budhia used to run for kilometres. But his coach never tested his ability with other sprinters before he was shoved into the sports hostel… His future doesn’t look promising,” he says.
Born to a poor family, Budhia was sold off by his mother for ` 800 to a vendor. It was Das, a judo trainer, who rescued the boy and took him to his coaching centre. There, Das noticed Budhia’s ability to run for long periods. After the ‘historic run’, Budhia participated in as many as 48 marathons. But soon, Das’ tough training sessions for the four-year-old kid came under the media scanner, and within a few months the child welfare department temporarily barred Budhia from running in marathons and sent him to the sports hostel.