Malkangiri: A child of the Malkangiri district, barely six years old has surprised everyone with his raw talent for running marathons. Rudra Sethi, a student of Std I in Kendriya Vidyalaya in Malyabant, ran a distance of 17 km without any rest.
The occasion was Malyabant Mahotsav where Rudra demonstrated his stamina and left the onlookers awestruck. There was no sign of stress or strain in the boy after covering the distance. Rudra’s grandfather, D Rabindra is his mentor.
According to Rabindra, the minor boy practices every day in the morning. He covers a distance of 10 km every morning and Rudra’s stamina continues to grow. “I aim at grooming my grandson further to prepare him to compete at the national level as Rudra grows,” he said.
On spotting Rudra’s performance, locals reminisced about Bhubaneswar-based Budhia Singh who left the world astounded when he ran a gruelling 65 km distance between Puri and Bhubaneswar in a little over seven hours. That was in 2006, and Budhia was just 4.
However, destiny was not so fair with Budhia who lost his mentor, Biranchi Das barely two years later, in 2008. Following Das’ murder, Budia lost the guidance and motivation that the former had offered. People of Malkangiri, and the local authorities said they would not let Rudra’s fate sublime, but nurture him as a champion.
