By Amelia Gentleman International Herald Tribune TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2006

NEW DELHI Budhia Singh's mother does not know when he was born - a fact that provides an insight into his deprived childhood but, more importantly, makes being listed in the record books as the world's youngest marathon runner problematic. Nevertheless the child is to take his place in India's Limca Book of Records: Whatever his precise age, he is still younger than any rival by a wide margin. Budhia, who is believed to be about 4½, ran 65 kilometers, or 40 miles, last Wednesday, stirring a nationwide frenzy. For a short while the excitement was purely positive. "Master Marathon!" newspapers declared, or, less elegantly: "Run in a million!" Budhia's miserable background as a slum child who was sold by his destitute mother as a toddler for 800 rupees, or $18, only enhanced his popular appeal. Local politicians fell over themselves to be photographed next to the child. But soon after Budhia had been paraded on national television as a miracle infant and role model for aspiring Indian child sports stars, the country's most powerful human rights body launched an investigation into whether the spectacle constituted child abuse. The change in the media's tone could not have been more abrupt as publications raced to condemn an act of "child cruelty." Budhia's political sponsors fell curiously silent. The case says much about India's thirst for athletic heroes. Despite its population of 1.3 billion, it won just one silver medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and beyond cricket, its sporting achievements are limited. For the past week, the story has absorbed the attention of India's editorial writers in a solemn debate on the pursuit of glory and the nature of fame. On May 3, Budhia was woken up at 3:15 a.m. and started running at 4:07 a.m. to avoid the worst of the heat as he made his way from the temple town of Puri to Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern state of Orissa. He ran for 7 hours 2 minutes, braving a peak temperature of 36.7 degrees Celsius, or 98 degrees Fahrenheit, but collapsed from exhaustion five kilometers, or three miles, before reaching his goal of 70 kilometers. As soon as he had recovered sufficiently to face the cameras, he was met by the Orissa sports minister and a contingent of dignitaries from the local police brigade, which had sponsored the event. "If this isn't success, then what is?" B.S. Gill, a deputy inspector general of police, asked waiting journalists. The National Human Rights Commission did not agree. The organization said it believed the child's rights had been violated and sent a letter demanding to know why the Orissa government had let the marathon go ahead. Alarmed by television footage of Budhia struggling against pain to push himself forward, Orissa's child welfare committee dispatched him to hospital for a medical examination.





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On Monday doctors reported that his health had already been severely damaged, stating that their investigations showed he was "undernourished, anemic and under cardiological stress" and warned that further long-distance runs could lead to kidney failure. Hospital staff recommended detailed studies of damage to his knees, ankles and spine and have also called for a drug test to make sure no performance-enhancing products were used and for a MRI scan to help determine his real age.''



In the meantime, child welfare officials issued a ban on any further long- distance runs for him. "He will not be allowed to run long-distance till all tests are completed," a child welfare officer, R.S. Mishra, told reporters in Bhubaneswar.
Over the past six months, the story of "marathon boy" Budhia's childhood has acquired the status of a modern Indian fable.
He was born in a slum in Orissa sometime after the cyclone of 1999 - which is the only event his illiterate mother Sukanti, who washes dishes for a living, was able to use as a point of reference. When his father, an alcoholic beggar, died two years ago, Sukanti found it impossible to feed all four children, so she sold Budhia to work for a street hawker. A few months later, so the story goes, a local judo instructor, Biranchi Das, caught him bullying another child outside his sports club.
"Once, after he had done some mischief, I asked him to keep running till I came back," Das told local journalists. "When I came back after five hours, I was stunned to find him still running."
Das paid off the 800 rupees and has since adopted Budhia, immersing his protégé in a rigorous training schedule. The rewards have already been substantial, with numerous television advertisements and invitations to tour abroad. Das denies that he has an eye on the profits and has initiated a defamation suit against Orissa's child development minister for suggesting that he has exploited the child for his own personal gain.
"I have not committed any crime by spotting Budhia's talent and helping him run long distances," he said recently. "I am not putting any pressure on him. He is running on his own. I am ready to face those who are questioning my work."
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Das added: "The government has no legal right to stop him running. They can say what they like, but he will not stop. He has already run 14 kilometers this morning. It makes him happy."
Like most newspapers, the Hindu did not agree. "To stretch his little limbs beyond what adults can endure is neither sporting nor socially and morally acceptable," the newspaper concluded in an editorial.
As he struggled for breath at the end of his ordeal last week, Budhia displayed a shrewd grasp of sporting sound bites that belied his age.
"I want to be a big runner," he said. "I will run and make my country feel proud of me."