Marathon runner Budhia Singh back to school in Odisha capital

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 13:

Odisha’s boy marathon runner Budhia Singh is back to classroom after an extended leave which had created much hue and cry over his mysterious disappearance from the city-based sports hostel last month.

The wonder boy— studying in Class IX— resumed his classes at DAV Public School in Chandrasekharpur here today.

As maintained by the marathon prodigy and his mother, Budhia has not returned to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) hostel here.

Budhia had alleged that he was deprived of adequate training facilities and being trained for shorter format of track events, in turn deviating from his goal.

Speaking to media, Budhia had expressed his discontentment over the training regimen. He had told that he was made to run 100 metre, 200 metre and couple of more distance and asked to improve his timing contrary to the idea of him being trained at the facility.

He was admitted to the hostel in September 2007 after the state government put restrictions on long distance running citing reasons that it would have led to growth retardation due to excessive training.

Last month, amid suspense over his disappearance, he was traced to Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu where he along with his mother Sukanti was reportedly vacationing.