As a toddler obsessive about sports activities, Durga Singh would run within the vast open areas across the fields in her distant village of Belwa Thakurai in Gopalganj district of Bihar. In an space with little sporting background, Durga’s father Shambhu Sharan Singh, a wheat farmer, was the one one that inspired 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 mentioned after shattering the 1500m Games report with a timing of 4 minutes 29.22 seconds on the sixth Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai on Wednesday.

The Class X scholar had received the 1500m gold on the thirty eighth Junior National Athletics Championship in Coimbatore final 12 months clocking 4 minutes 38.29 seconds.

The fourth of 5 siblings, Durga would additionally play kabaddi and soccer as a toddler however her heroes had been runners. She was such a fan of PT Usha and Usain Bolt that she had their footage printed and framed in her room.

Her expertise was observed early on, no less than in her faculty. “I would be taken with senior students for matches. People would fight to have me in their team.”

Medals would come thick and quick in native meets. But she didn’t realise their worth at the moment. “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 expertise began getting observed much more. She visited Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna to coach underneath coach Rakesh Singh and there isn’t any wanting again since. Her angle in direction of medals additionally modified 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.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)