Belwa thakurai

Khelo India Youth Games: As a child obsessed with sports, Durga Singh would run in the wide open spaces around the fields in her remote village of Belwa Thakurai in Gopalganj district of Bihar. In an area with little sporting background, Durga’s father Shambhu Sharan Singh, a wheat farmer, was the only person who encouraged her.

"I have faced a lot of challenges. There was no eagerness for sport in my family, apart from my father, who would always say, ‘you go wherever you want to, do whatever you want to.’ Only he supported me, which is why I am here," an elated Durga said after shattering the 1500m Games record with a timing of 4 minutes 29.22 seconds at the 6th Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai on Wednesday.

The Class X student had won the 1500m gold at 38th Junior National Athletics Championship in Coimbatore last year clocking 4 minutes 38.29 seconds.