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Sriram Singh
Sriram Singh is an Indian athlete who set a national record that stands till today even after 24 years.

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Sriram Singh , Indian AthleteSriram Singh was born on 14th November in the year 1948 in Badnagar, Rajasthan. This Indian middle distance runner, Sriram Singh joined Rajputana Rifles in the year 1968. In the Rajputana Rifles he came under the influence of the coach Ilyas Babar. It was Babar who swayed him to shift his focus from 400m to 800m.

At the Asian Games held in the year1970 at Bangkok, he was beaten to the second place in the 800 by Jimmy Crampton of Burma. In the Munich Olympics held in the year 1972, Singh went out in the heats. 1:47.7 was his time. He improved it to 1:47.6 in the Teheran Asian Games of 1974 and won the gold in the tournament. In the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Singh scored the high point of his career in the 800m race. He had never run on synthetic tracks prior to the competition. He broke his own Asian record in the first race, with a time of 1:45.94. In the semifinal, he came second.

With a time of 50.85 ahead of Cuban Alberto Juantorena`s 50.90 in the final, Singh led. Around the 550m mark, Juantorena recuperated him and won in a world record time of 1:43.50. Singh became weaker in the home straight to finish seventh with a time of 1:45.77. Later Juantorena imputed his world record to Sriram`s front running. Till the year 1994, Sriram Singh`s time stood as an Asian record. As of 2007, it is still the Indian national record.

Sriram Singh after retirement as Honorary Captain from the Army took the job of a coach with the Sports Authority of India. He in a short time was able to demonstrate splendid credentials for himself. Some of his famous trainees are Geeta Zutshi, Shiny Abraham, Vandana Rao and Vandana Shanbhag among others. For three Asian Games, he has also trained and coached the Indian Team in the middle-distance.


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