MUMBAI: One has heard of quack science. India could soon be called a country that celebrates “quack sports records”.
The latest in this dubious list is Srinivasa Gowda, a Kambala jockey from Moodabidri in Karnataka. Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju no less announced that his ministry was calling the “running sensation” for trials after he set a new “record” as the fastest runner in the history of the traditional sport of the coastal region.
“I’ll call Karnataka’s Srinivasa Gowda for trials by top SAI Coaches. There’s lack of knowledge in masses about the standards of Olympics especially in athletics where ultimate human strength & endurance are surpassed. I’ll ensure that no talents in India are left out untested,” Rijiju tweeted on Saturday.
The minister was following up on a suggestion made by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor who had earlier tweeted: “Faster Than Usain Bolt? Karnataka Man Running With Buffaloes Covers 100 Metres in Just 9.55 Seconds. I urge the Athletics Association of India to take this man under their wing & make an Olympic champion of him. Wonder how many hidden talents we have!” The less said about the sports talent spotting acumen of India’s celebrated ‘walking talking Oxford dictionary” the better.
Coming to the record set by the 28-year-old construction worker. He is reported to have taken just 13.62 seconds to cover a distance of 145 metres at the Kambala (an annual race held in the southern state where people sprint 142m through paddy fields with buffaloes) at Aikala village, which is about 30 kilometres from Mangaluru.
Srinivasa supposedly took just 9.55 seconds to run a distance of 100 metres and netizens were quick to point out that he was faster that eight-time Olympic Gold medallist Usain Bolt’s 100-metre world record of 9.58 seconds set in 2009.
As an aside, noted British sports journalist and author Barney Ronay was quick to take up Tharoor’s tweet with one of his own (tongue firmly in cheek wethink): “And his buffaloes too, who must also be quicker than Bolt. Serious cluster of talent there.”
Brings to mind the media created brouhaha and social media trumpeteering that was swirling around India’s star woman sprinter Hima Das’ “sensational” month of results between July 2 and 20 when the sprinter claimed five Gold medals on the trot in some low profile sprint events in Europe. It subsequently came to light that Das had “won” what were essentially training races with timings which were WAY OFF her best.
And as Indian Express has noted, last year something very similar to what is happening with Gowda played out in Madhya Pradesh. Rameshwar Gurjar, a farmer, enjoyed a period of very short-lived fame when a video of him ‘running a 100 metre lap in 11 seconds’ without any shoes on a dirt road went viral. He too had been called the ‘Usain Bolt of India’.
A trial race had been arranged for Gurjar at the SAI centre in Bhopal – in which he finished last with a disappointing timing. “He is exhausted due to the glare of publicity so couldn’t perform well. Will give proper time and training to him,” Rijiju tweeted after the race.
Gurjar has not been heard from or of since.
Meanwhile, Gowda himself, who works as a construction worker in the kambala off-season, while ecstatic about the sudden attention on him and his sport, is more circumspect about the Bolt comparison. “People are comparing me to Usain Bolt. He is a world champion, I am only running in a slushy paddy field,” he told ANI.
“The credit of my success should also go to my two buffaloes. They ran very well. I chased them or drove them,” he told News18.
Expect a similar tale to that of Gurjar play out in the case of Gowda in the near future. In the meantime, SportzPower wishes India’s latest Usain Bolt all the fun of what is bound to a very short-lived time in the spotlight while it lasts.
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