Former speedster Ram Kumar pays his debt of 37 years to a 17-year-old from Alappuzha
Ram Kumar gifted Athul T M of Alappuzha a cash award of Rs 10,000 he had promised the sprinter who broke his 37-year-old meet record in Junior Boys' 100 metre in the Kerala State School Sports.
Ram Kumar gifted Athul T M of Alappuzha a cash award of Rs 10,000 he had promised the sprinter who broke his 37-year-old meet record in Junior Boys' 100 metre in the Kerala State School Sports.
Ram Kumar gifted Athul T M of Alappuzha a cash award of Rs 10,000 he had promised the sprinter who broke his 37-year-old meet record in Junior Boys' 100 metre in the Kerala State School Sports.
Every year during the Kerala State School Sports meet, Ram Kumar would take a break from his Railway job in Palakkad to witness the Junior Boys' 100 metre final. For the last five years, he appeared with a wad of cash, Rs 10,000 to be precise, which he intended to gift the boy who broke his meet record set in 1988.
On Thursday, 37 years after he ran the record time for the GV Raja Sports School, Mailom, Ram Kumar's wait ended. Athul T M of Alappuzha clocked 10.79 seconds in heats and did 10.81 seconds for gold in the final, both timings good enough to break Ram Kumar's meet record of 10.9 seconds.
"Someone has finally broken my record and it feels good," Ram Kumar said as he gave Athul a hug and casually slipped the gift he had carried in his pants pocket. "Finally, the debt is paid," Ram Kumar said with a big smile. Athul touched the feet of the veteran, whose name he had just erased from the record books.
As mediapersons made a beeline for the champion, a plus-one student of DV HSS, Charamangalam near Cherthala, Ram Kumar took a step back, reminisced about the good old days with his contemporaries before slipping out of the back gate of the Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium. Ram Kumar works as a Chief Ticket Examiner in the Southern Railway and has eight years of service to go. But today, he was happy to retire from (sprinting) tracks, making way for a new star.
Athul's home stretch is curved
Athul lives near the Chethi Beach in Alappuzha with his parents and a sister. He says meeting Kerala State Sports Council coach Samjee K R about four years ago changed his life.
Athul started off doing long jumps, but was forced to discontinue it after a right-leg fracture. Since Samjee took him under his wing, Athul's focus shifted to the sprint events.
But there was a hurdle; in fact, it still remains in his path, because there isn't a proper 400-metre athletic track in Cherthala and nearby areas. The one at St Michael's College is not in use due to National Highway works and Athul trains at the Kalavoor Gopinath Memorial tracks.
"I'm glad we have that facility to practice, but it is only a 200-metre track, so it is not possible to get a 100-metre stretch," Athul said. It is incredible that Athul had to train for the 100 metres doing 80-85-metre sprints because a simple 200-metre synthetic track does not come with a proper home stretch. The competition events are held on 400-metre tracks.