Kheta Ram

Kheta Ram, Marathon athlete representing India in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio

Kheta Ram aka Khetha Ram / KhetaRam (born 20 Sep 1986) is an Indian athlete who has qualified to represent India at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the marathon event. He is also in the Indian Army.[1]

Career

Ram enrolled for the Indian Army through the general quota to earn a steady income and is posted at Samba, Jammu. He has been representing India in various events, including the World Military Games. With an impressive array of races and achievements, recently, he and his coach Surendra Singh decided that he should train and run a marathon distance rather than track and field events of intermediate distances as he has been doing.[2] He has trained at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, in the thin air of Thangaraj Stadium in Wellington / Coonoor in the Nilgiri Hills so as to increase his heart and lung capacity, and most recently at the SAI complex in Bangalore, India. His VO2 Max is around 84 (ml of Oxygen used in 1 min per kg of bodyweight, comparable to Lance Armstrong), with a resting heart rate of around 45bpm.[3]

He shall represent India at the 2016 Summer Olympics qualifying with a Marathon time of 02:17:23 in the 2016 Mumbai Marathon along with two other Indian marathoner men, Gopi T and Nitendra Singh Rawat

Competition records

Year Competition Venue Position Event Time Reference
2011 Bangalore Interstate Bangalore, India Unknown 10,000m 29:30:35 [4]
2011 Sunfest World 10K Bangalore, India 22nd Overall / 3rd Indian 10 km Road 30:34 [4][5]
2011 New Delhi Half Marathon New Delhi, India 22nd Overall / 2nd Indian Half marathon 1:04:44 [4]
2012 Vadodara 15M Vadodara, India Unknown 15M Road 47:11 [4]
2013 Indian Grand Prix Patiala, India 1st 5,000m 13:15:32

(1 lap short)

 [6]
2013 Indian Grand Prix Patiala India Unknown 3,000m 08:06:33 [4]
2013 Asian Grand Prix, 1st Leg Bangkok, Thailand 2nd 5,000m 14:55:12 [4][7][8]
2013 Asian Athletic Championships Pune, India 4th 10,000m 29:35:72
2014 Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships Patiala, India 1st 5,000m 13:49:17 [9][10][11][12]
2014 National Open Athletics Championships New Delhi, India 2nd 10,000m 29:32:75 [13][14]
2014 Asian Games Incheon, South Korea 7th 5,000m 13:27:40 [4]
2015 Vasai Virar Mayor's marathon Virar, Mumbai Metro area, India 1st Marathon 02:22:32 [15][16]
2016 Mumbai Marathon Mumbai, India 3rd Indian / 15th Overall Marathon 2:17:23 [17][18][19][20][21]
2016 South Asian Games Guwahati, India 3rd Marathon 02:21:14 [22]
2016 Summer Olympics Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 26th Marathon 02:15:26

Personal life

Born in Khokhsar(west) in the Barmer district of Rajasthan, Kheta Ram's humble origin is as a Naik Subedar of the Jat Regiment. He has one sister and four brothers. He used to run 4 km every day through the desert to a school that only had classes up to 8th grade. Many fast runners are from hilly areas which is thought to give them a red blood cell, lung efficiency and endurance advantage. In contrast, Kheta Ram's abilities are thought to come from the strengthening his calves and hamstrings may have received from running in the sand.

He joined the Army at Age 18 as a means of earning a steady income, and got recognized for his athletic abilities. The Indian Army excuses world class sports persons from active duty, allowing them to train as an athlete full-time. He would like to use his privileges as an athlete to solve the acute water issues of his village. His parents and wife are not educated and don’t comprehend that he will represent the country in the Olympics.[2] He is the only earning member of his family and sends his savings home to his parents, wife and two children. His biggest expense is his monthly purchase of shoes (priced at roughly Rs 10,000 per pair) to accommodate the number of miles that the athlete runs each month. As of mid 2016, he does not have any corporate sponsorship and has to purchase his own shoes.[3]

He and his fellow athletes spend 11 out of 12 months of the year away from home and without meeting their families, a sacrifice that they must make in order to compete on the world stage.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Indian Marathoners – Bharat at Rio '16 – Track and Field Sports News". trackfield.in. Retrieved 2016-07-29.
  2. 1 2 "Kheta Ram: 10 things to know about India's long-distance runner heading to Rio Olympics 2016". 2016-07-24. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  3. 1 2 3 "Cool Runnings: India's marathon men".
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Profile of Ram KHETA | All-Athletics.com". www.all-athletics.com. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  5. ↑ "- Deccan Herald". m.deccanherald.com. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  6. ↑ "Kheta Ram wins 5000m amid controversy". The Hindu. 2013-04-01. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  7. ↑ "Asian Grand Prix 2013 | Singapore Athletics". www.singaporeathletics.org.sg. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  8. ↑ "2013 Asian Grand Prix Results" (PDF).
  9. ↑ "Kheta Ram sets meet record in 5000m to qualify for Asian Games". 2014-08-16. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  10. ↑ "Kheta Ram shatters event record in 5,000m at National Athletics Championships". 2014-08-16. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  11. ↑ "Kheta Ram breaks 7-year-old meet record, qualifies for Asian Games". Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  12. ↑ "Kheta Ram sets new meet record in men's 5000m to qualify for Asian Games 2014". 2014-08-17. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  13. ↑ http://indianathletics.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/afi-results-2014-AFI-Website.xls
  14. ↑ "20th Asian Athletics Championships | Athletics Federation of India". indianathletics.in. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  15. ↑ "Marathon: Never expected to win on debut, says Kheta Ram". Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  16. ↑ "Debutant Kheta Ram wins Marathon 2015 - Mumbai Messenger - The Local Weekly Newspaper, Mumbai Local Newspaper, Local Newspaper of Mumbai". 2015-11-27. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  17. ↑ "Gopi, Kheta Ram qualify for Olympics; Rawat sets course record - Times of India". Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  18. ↑ "Gopi, Kheta Ram qualify for Olympics; Rawat sets course record". The Hindu. 2016-01-17. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  19. ↑ "More than 40,000 people participate in the Mumbai Marathon 2016 - Firstpost". 2016-01-17. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  20. ↑ "Rawat sets course record; Gopi, Kheta Ram qualify for Rio". Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  21. ↑ "Gopi T, Kheta Ram seal Rio berths | The Asian Age". Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  22. ↑ "2016 South Asian Games Results" (PDF).
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