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As a child obsessed with sports, Durga Singh would run in the wide open spaces around the fields in her remote village of Belwa Thakurai in Gopalganj district of Bihar. In an area with little sporting background, Durga’s father Shambhu Sharan Singh, a wheat farmer, was the only person who encouraged her. “I have faced a lot of challenges. There was no eagerness for sport in my family, apart from my father, who would always say, ‘you go wherever you want to, do whatever you want to.’ Only he supported me, which is why I am here,” an elated Durga said after shattering the 1500m Games record with a timing of 4 minutes 29.22 seconds at the 6th Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai on Wednesday.
The Class X student had won the 1500m gold at the 38th Junior National Athletics Championship in Coimbatore last year clocking 4 minutes 38.29 seconds.
The fourth of five siblings, Durga would also play kabaddi and football as a child but her heroes were runners. She was such a fan of PT Usha and Usain Bolt that she had their pictures printed and framed in her room.
Her talent was noticed early on, at least in her school. “I would be taken with senior students for matches. People would fight to have me in their team.”
Medals would come thick and fast in local meets. But she did not realise their value at that time. “I would come first or second, bring the medal home and fling it aside. I would not care much about it as no one valued my achievements at home then. Relatives who’d come home would be surprised at how the medals would be just lying around.”
Gradually, the 17-year-old’s talent started getting noticed even more. She visited Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna to train under coach Rakesh Singh and there’s no looking back since. Her attitude towards medals also changed thereafter.
“I then realised the name you can make for yourself if you win medals. I became more determined and started working much harder. Now I want to make my country proud,” she signed off.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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