The name Budhia Singh conjures up an image of a little kid sprinting across the landscape of Odisha. It was back in 2006 when as a four year old, little Budhia earned a record in the Limca Book of Records for completing a staggering 65 kilometres (Puri to Bhubaneswar) in a little over seven hours. Parallely, his coach Biranchi Das became the centre of a raging controversy. Today, as a 14-year-old, he cuts a different picture except that the zeal to run remains the same and so does the twinkle in the eye at the mention of the sport. Basking in the glory of his years as a wonder kid, he talks to us in broken Hindi ahead of the biopic — Budhia Singh – Born to Run — based on his life that is set to release next month.
The Odisha boy, also touted as the country’s youngest marathoners, is believed to have participated in over 40 marathons even before he turned five, before being packed off to Kalinga Stadium hostel in Bhubaneswar in 2006 by the government authorities. Since then, Budhia’s life has been shrouded in controversy. “When I finished the Puri marathon, after the prize distribution we went home happily. After a few months, rumours started doing the rounds that my coach was hitting me, and there was a warrant issued against him. Everything went downhill from there. I was sent to the sports hostel and my coach was put behind bars,” he recollects.
Budhia, however, fiercely defends his former coach. “When I was with Biren sir, I used to wake up at 4 am and run till 6 am. Later I’d attend school and return to the training school and start practice again from 1 to 4 in the afternoon. I was under proper care. He even taught me swimming, exercise and used to take me for a massage later. Hostel life is way different than my childhood; here I only get to practice for two hours and then play sports. I don’t have proper practice for running at all,” he adds.
The boy who got lost in the crowd at one point wants to shine again and this time not for a short span. “I want to be the Usain Bolt of India. I want to run for my country on the same tracks and win medals.”
