Sourabh Vij is a noted Indian sportsperson, recognized as a shot putter. He bagged gold medal at the second Commonwealth Youth Games. In the year 2006 he was a representative of India at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics and also won an Asian Junior silver medal. Sourabh Vij gained recognition in the year 2010 after appearing at the Asian Indoor Games in which he marked an unratified national record by beating throw of 20.65 metres. He garnered second place at the national championships which paved his way for the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in his hometown New Delhi but he could not attend the same. Sourabh Vij was born on 14th June 1987 in New Delhi.
Career of Sourabh Vij
Sourabh Vij achieved his first medal at the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games in which he won shot put gold medal with his mark of 18.45 metres. This was second athletics gold of the competition for India along with Hari Shankar Roy. In the year 2005 he started partaking as a junior with a 6 kg implement. The following year brought him successes and he bagged silver medal at the 2006 Asian Junior Athletics Championships, won the national junior championships and represented the country at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics held in Beijing. In the shot put final of the latter, he finished seventh.
In the next year Sourabh Vij ascended into the senior ranks at the 2007 Asian Indoor Games and finished ninth. After two years he returned to the competition with the 2009 Asian Indoor Games and got fifth place finish with his throw of 18.38 m. He managed to become a part of the main national team in the build up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which took place in his hometown Delhi. He was consistent in throwing over 20 metres that season and successfully beat the decade-old Indian record of 20.42 m made by Shakti Singh with a put of 20.65 m at the Delhi State Annual Athletics Championships. But unfortunately the meet had no conduction of the necessary doping tests and in the absence of an official from the Athletics Federation of India his mark could not be ratified.
Sourabh Vij participated at the Asian All-Star Meet in the following week which was a test event for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games athletics competition. In the competition, he finished as a runner-up behind Om Prakash Singh with a best mark of 19.09 m. He once again became the runner-up to Singh at the Indian Inter-State Championships in August. However he could not represent India at the 2010 Commonwealth Games due to failing a doping test.
