Buddhia Singh is the world`s youngest marathon runner who ran a marathon of sixty five kilometres. He shot to fame when he completed an uninterrupted sixty five kilometre marathon from the Jagganath temple in Puri to the CRPF campus in Bhubaneshwar on 2nd May, 2006. The entire distance of 65 kilometres was covered by him in 7 hours and 2 minutes. He has managed to make it into the Limca Book of Records under the coaching of Biranchi Das. His running ability has made him into a celebrity and as a result he has even appeared in many television commercials. By the age of four, Budhia Singh had run and completed 50 marathons.
Early life of Buddhia Singh
Buddhia Singh was born in Odisha in 2002. His father died at an early age. As a result of their poverty, he was sold by his mother to a travelling salesman for 850 at the age of two. However, Biranchi Das, a judo trainer, rescued him and took him to the coaching centre. Biranchi Das reimbursed the salesman`s purchase price of Buddhia Singh and the child came to live with Biranchi Das at a local Judo Hall. One day, Biranchi Das caught Buddhia Singh being a bad-mannered. He punished him by making him run and forgot about him. Biranchi Das returned after five hours and Buddhia Singh was still running. He then began to prepare him to run marathons.
Career of Buddhia Singh
Buddhia Singh"s running capacity has led to appear in a number of television commercials. These commercials and Budhia Singh"s recognition supposedly led to financial gains for Biranchi Das, which led to allegations of misuse. A feature-length documentary called Marathon Boy was released in 2011 that focused on Singh and Das`s relationship over a five-year period from 2006. The documentary was funded by HBO and BBC "Storyville".
Buddhia Singh was no longer running long distances by the age of 13 in 2015, and was running one or two hours of conditional training per day. Although, Buddhia Singh himself has said that he would like to one day embody India at the Olympics in the men`s marathon. A biographical film of Buddhia Singh and Biranchi Das`s relationship, "Buddhia Singh - Born to Run", was directed by Soumendra Padhi and released in 2016. It starred Mayur Patole as Buddhia Singh and Manoj Bajpayee as Biranchi Das. Budhia Singh now lives a very common life at the Kalinga stadium hostel in Bhubaneswar.
