KIYG 2023: Bihar farmer’s daughter Durga Singh runs into record books with 1500m gold

As a child obsessed with sports, Durga Singh would run in the wide open spaces around the fields in her remote village of Belwa Thakurai in Gopalganj district of Bihar. In an area with little sporting background, Durga’s father Shambhu Sharan Singh, a wheat farmer, was the only person who encouraged her.

“I have faced a lot of challenges. There was no eagerness for sport in my family, apart from my father, who would always say, ‘you go wherever you want to, do whatever you want to.’ Only he supported me, which is why I am here,” an elated Durga said after shattering the 1500m Games record with a timing of 4 minutes 29.22 seconds at the 6th Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai on Wednesday.

The Class X student had won the 1500m gold at 38th Junior National Athletics Championship in Coimbatore last year clocking 4 minutes 38.29 seconds.

The fourth of five siblings, Durga would also play kabaddi and football as a child but her heroes were runners. She was such a fan of PT Usha and Usain Bolt that she had their pictures printed and framed in her room.

Her talent was noticed early on, at least in her school. “I would be taken with senior students for matches. People would fight to have me in their team.”

Medals would come thick and fast in local meets. But she did not realise their value at that time. “I would come first or second, bring the medal home and fling it aside. I would not care much about it as no one valued my achievements at home then. Relatives who’d come home would be surprised at how the medals would be just lying around.”

Gradually, the 17-year-old’s talent started getting noticed even more. She visited Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna to train under coach Rakesh Singh and there’s no looking back since. Her attitude towards medals also changed thereafter.
“I then realised the name you can make for yourself if you win medals. I became more determined and started working much harder. Now I want to make my country proud,” she signed off.

Photo Caption: Bihar farmer’s daughter Durga Singh runs into record books with 1500m Gold with a record timing of 4 minutes 29.22 seconds at the 6th Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai on Wednesday.

ABOUT KIYG 2023, TAMIL NADU
The 6th Khelo India Youth Games 2023 from January 19-31 are being held in Tamil Nadu. This is the first time that Khelo India Youth Games are being held in South India. The Games are being played across four cities of Tamil Nadu, namely Chennai, Madurai, Trichy and Coimbatore. The mascot for the Games is Veera Mangai. Rani Velu Nachiyar, fondly called Veera Mangai, was an Indian queen who waged a war against British colonial rule. The mascot symbolises the valour and spirit of Indian women, embodying the strength of women power. The logo for the games incorporates the figure of poet Thiruvalluvar. Over 5600 athletes are participating in this edition of Khelo India Youth Games, spread across 13 days and 15 venues. There are 26 sporting disciplines with over 275 competitive events and 1 demo sport. The 26 sporting disciplines are a diverse mix of conventional sports such as football, volleyball, badminton etc. and traditional sports like kalaripayattu, gatka, thang ta, kabaddi and yogasana. Silambam, a traditional sport of Tamil Nadu, has been introduced as a demo sport for the first time in the history of Khelo India Youth Games. The Khelo India mission, started in 2016, is a brainchild of PM Narendra Modi and run by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

About Sports for All (SFA)

Sports For All (SFA) is India’s largest tech-enabled multi-sport grassroots competition platform. The vision is to make youth fall in love with sports through inspiring and joyful sporting experiences. Founders Rishikesh Joshi and Vishwas Choksi, since the inception of SFA in 2015, have determinedly focused on transforming and mobilizing school sporting championships in the country, by providing an inclusive, diverse, safe, and best-in-class platform for the youth to realize their fullest potential through sports. SFA Championships, SFA’s flagship IP, brings forth the potential of large-scale multi-sporting competitions propelled by tech and data analytics. With a technology-led approach at its core, SFA enables the entire grassroots sport ecosystem via SFAPLAY.COM, a platform designed to empower and connect all stakeholders.