Marathon boy wonder who went missing from Sports School traced, set to return 

Bhubaneshwar: Budhia Singh, the boy wonder of Odisha who was reported missing after he left the Sports Authority of India (SAI) school hostel early this month has been traced by the government which says that he is not missing and will be coming back to school in a few days.

Budhia Singh whose feats as a marathon runner set records at an age when other children would barely make it out of their backyards. At the tender age of four, Budhia ran 65 kilometres between Puri and Bhubaneshwar, back in 2006.

However on the advice of Khurda District Child Welfare Committee (CWC), the Odisha government banned him from running marathons as the CWC stated that running marathons at such a young age may lead to growth retardation due to damage at the growing ends of the long bones

The marathon prodigy was then admitted to the SAI hostel in September 2007 by the Odisha government, that sponsors his education, food and clothes there. Budhia Singh was however unimpressed by the school that only permitted him to run a ‘measly’ 1500m and gave him only 3-4 pieces of chicken, while his ex-coach Biranchi Das fed him more. He did not like that he was being asked to focus on sprints as he believes that he was born to run marathons.

Budhia who now studies in Class IX in the DAV English Medium School here, went for a vacation earlier this month and did not return. The school and sports hostel started searching for him even as the CWC demanded a notice on their efforts to look for him.

The government on Friday stated that Budhia was not missing and will return to the Sports School shortly. They have also said that “Budhia is free to go anywhere if he did not like it here in the hostel.” Besides Budhia, eight other boys are said to have left and not returned.

Meanwhile National Award winning actor Manoj Bajpayee, who will be seen essaying the real life character of Biranchi Das -- who coached Budhia to run for marathons -- in forthcoming biopic “Budhia Singh - Born To Run”, said every person needs a mentor who can spot his talent and support him.

Produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Code Red Film Productions, the film, directed by Soumendra Padhi, will hit the screens on August 5.