Wonder kid Budhia Singh, five-year-old marathon runner, is all set to start his life in a new phase now. On Friday, the marathon kid has got a new coach and got admission to the government-run sports hostel to live in Bhubaneshwar. This is the great story of a boy from a slum in Bhubaneswar to new stage of national level sports.

However, the minimum age to get admission to the hostel is twelve. The government has decided to make Budhia’s admission to the hostel as an exceptional case. Five-year old Budhia has a dream in his eyes to go for the Olympics. He said:

I will practice and get ready for the Olympics one day.

Sukanti Singh, Budhiya’s mother said:

I am very happy with the government’s decision. He will train at the sports hostel with a new coach and also go to school.

In the year 2006, a famous marathon run from Puri to Bhubaneswar made Budhiya a national sports star in a day. He went way forward from the slum to fame and to record books. Later, he was stopped from participating in a 500-km walkathon from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata in June 2006.

Arun Kumar Das, Budhia’s newly appointed coach, said that he is yet to decide that Budhia will prove himself as a good distance runner in coming days. He said:

We have a long-term plan for Budhia. We will do all types of tests and then decide which running discipline would suite him best.

Das, earlier, had trained national sprint champions Rachita Panda and Anuradha Biswal. He has now received official sanction to help Budhia to see the dreams and to achieve the dreams.

On the other hand, Biranchi Das, Budhia’s former coach, who had seen the wonder boy first and taught him to dream in the first place, is facing the allegations that he maltreated and exploited the child to get fame.

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