The Odisha government today said child marathon runner Budhia Singh was not missing and he was likely to return to the sports hostel here in the next four days.
“Budhia Singh’s mother had yesterday told a local news channel that they are in Nayagarh. We are expecting him to return to sports hostel in two to four days,” Sports and Youth Affairs Secretary Saswat Mishra told reporters, following local media report that the boy was missing.
Budhia Singh, the young marathon runner who ran 65 kilometres between Puri and Bhubaneshwar in 2006 at the age of four, had been reported missing a few days ago.
Singh is now a class 9 student at Bhubaneshwar’s DAV English Medium School, and was expected to be at the hostel at the end of his summer vacation last month, the report said.
Earlier in April, Singh told The Indian Express he wanted to leave the hostel.
All that I am getting to run in the hostel is a measly 1,500 metres. I’m being told to improve my speed by my coach, but I don’t know how far it would help me. I don’t like running sprints, but that’s what I am being asked to.Budhia Singh to The Indian Express
Singh’s mother Sukanti also said her son was unhappy at the hostel, according to Odisha TV.
He wants to improve his performance but the Hostel authorities and the Sports department are not serious about his future. If someone is willing to take charge of my son, I will definitely allow him.Sukanti
Singh was put in the SAI hostel in 2007 after the state government, on the advice of the Khurda District Child Welfare Committee, banned him from running .
Allegations had been raised against his coach Biranchi Das of child exploitation and the government at the time said that if Singh continued running marathons, “it may lead to growth retardation due to damage at the growing ends of the long bones.”
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