- Sriram Singh
Sriram Singh, born
1948-11-14 in Badnagar,Rajasthan was anIndia nmiddle distance runner.Sriram Singh joined
Rajputana Rifles in 1968 where he came under the influence of the coachIlyas Babar . Babar persuaded him to shift his focus from 400m to 800m.In the
1970 Asian Games inBangkok , he was beaten to the second place in the 800 by Jimmy Crampton ofBurma . Singh went out in the heats in the Munich Olympics in 1972 but his time of 1:47.7 bettered Crampton's Asian record. He improved it to 1:47.6 while winning the gold in theTeheran Asian Games of 1974.The high point of Sriram Singh's career was the 800m race in 1976 Montreal Olympics. Prior to the competition he had never run on synthetic tracks. The qualifying round, the semifinal and the final were run on successive days. In the first race, he broke his own Asian record with a time of 1:45.94. In the semifinal, he came second in a time of 1:46.40.
In the final, Singh led at the bell with a time of 50.85 ahead of
Cuba nAlberto Juantorena 's 50.90. Juantorena caught up with him around the 550m mark and won in a world record time of 1:43.50. Singh faded away in the home straight to finish seventh with a time of 1:45.77. Juantorena later attributed his world record to Sriram's front running.Sriram Singh's time stood as an Asian record till 1994 and as of 2007 is still the Indian national record. He retained his 800m gold medal in the 1978 Asian Games (1:48.80), but was eliminated in the heats of the same event in the Moscow Olympics.
References
* K. Arumugam and Gulu Ezekiel, "Great Indian Olympians"
* [http://www.kickoff2010.org/inspiration.htm An online article]External links
* [http://sportal.nic.in/legenddetails.asp?sno=587&moduleid=&maincatid=5&subid=0&comid=55 Sports personalities_ Sri Ram Singh Shekawat]
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