Mohammad Asraf Ali from Siliguri has achieved the Best Man Athlete 2025 award at the 73rd West Bengal State Athletics Championship 2025 that was held at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Calcutta from June 20 to 22.
The 20-year-old athlete participated in the high jump in the under-23 category and bagged the gold medal by securing a jump of 2.17 metres.
He also broke the national record in the under-23 category of high jump by breaking his previous record of 2.15 metres, which he had achieved in the 2023 national games.
“It is a major success for an athlete like him. He has been continuing his sports while braving various odds,” said Bibekanda Ghosh, Ali’s mentor.
Since 2019, Ghosh has been training Ali.
The youth is from Jhingibari village of Bidhannagar, which is around 40km from Siliguri.
His father is a farmer, while his mother is a homemaker. His brother is a migrant worker in Kerala.
Ghosh, who is also the athletics secretary of Siliguri Mahakuma Krira Parishad, the subdivisional sports body, said apart from his (Ali’s) underprivileged background, the youth had to face several other hardships.
“There is no synthetic track in the region. Ahead of any major event of athletics, he has to rush to the Sports Authority of India’s centres in Calcutta or Guwahati for practice so that he can improve his performance,” said Ghosh, who accompanies Ali in most of the sports events.
Despite infrastructural inconveniences and financial problems, Ali, who is a national record holder, has bagged around 12 medals from different national and state-level championships so far.
“His overall performance in different championships has helped him achieve the best athlete award at the state meet this time,” Ghosh added.
Ali, who is a second-year undergraduate student at Siliguri College, said his focus was to improve his performance.
“I hold a national record but want to improve my performance so that I can prove myself at the senior level in due course. I have to face financial issues as my family is not well-off, but I believe my hard work will eventually yield better results,” said the youth.