greener pastures

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 15: Dressed in his new school uniform wonder kid Budhia Singh boarded his first school bus early this morning.

The world’s youngest marathon runner was admitted to the Chandrashekharpur DAV Public School, a few kilometres away from the Sports Hostel at Kalinga Stadium where he is at present putting up. It has been full three months since he discontinued his classes at the BJEM School following the rift between his mother and former coach Biranchi Das.

“I am very happy as DAV is a good school. They teach English here,” is all that Sukanti Singh, his mother could say. Sukanti along with Budhia’s new coach Arun Das accompanied the boy to school.

At school, Budhia, was as usual thrown a king’s welcome. Teachers and students greeted him with bouquets and flowers. The routine prayer session over, Budhia was formally welcomed by the principal, Keshab Chandra Satapathy. As the crowd cheered him by waving hands, Budhia introduced himself to the crowd. “If you become my friend, I will teach you how to run,” said the boy.

However, the school administration is yet to decide which class Budhia would be admitted. “We will evaluate his standard, and most likely he would be admitted to Upper KG,” said Satapathy.

Budhia attended a junior class, where his classmates received him with hugs and kisses. “Budhia is my best friend. I have seen him on TV,” said an excited Ankush Patra.

Five-year-old Budhia made it to the headlines by running 65km in 7.02 hours from Puri to Bhubaneswar on May 2 last year.

In August, Budhia and his mother had alleged that Das had physically tortured the boy. Das was arrested in the case, but was later released on bail.