Fastest man in Delhi

The winner is 19-year-old Ashwani Sharma,who can currently lay claim to being Delhi’s fastest runner.

It’s not a bad reputation for someone who started his career almost as an afterthought. “Most athletes would have begun training in their early teens but I only started when I was 15,” says Ashwani.

Never really enthusiastic about sports apart from the odd game of football or cricket,it was a challenge made by his schoolmates that pushed him onto the track. “We were just fooling around when one of my classmates bet that he could run faster than me. I beat him quite easily and my friends told me I should get serious about it.”

Thinking that it would at least give an opportunity to bunk school,Ashwani took up the offer and started training under Dinesh Rawat at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Identifying potential in the boy,Rawat insisted that the then 45 kg boy to start working out.

And over three years Ashwani followed that advice bulking up to 62 kg of muscle tightly wound around a slight 5 foot 7 frame. It’s still not nearly enough as Ashwani is quick to admit. “When competing in a race I can loose up to a kilo at the end of a race,so I still need to work on getting bigger. I am benching 95kg,but I know I have to keep going.”

Injury troubles

Despite early success,consistently winning medals in the junior national events,Ashwani has been plagued by injury that have restricted his growth in the field. A pulled left hamstring ruled him out for the latter half of 2010. The work schedule is heavy and the rewards few. “You have to put hours and hours of hard work and you have 10-11 seconds to perform. You are either made or broken in those few seconds. You can’t hide behind the fact that you are talented when you are competing,” he says.

Sprinting is not an easy sport yet clearly it is addictive. After all the hours of training,exhaustion and struggle,Ashwani swears there is nothing else he would rather do. “Initially I would run just so that I didn’t have to study. But now it has become a passion. I like being fast. I enjoy the feeling of the track underneath my feet,” he says.

Ashwani however has set targets for himself. “Right now I am running 10.70 consistently. I think by the end of the year,a reasonable target would be to get to 10.50.While my immediate target is to do well in the interstate championships in June,I hope to do well at the Ranchi Open Nationals in September. If I perform there,I could even have a chance of making it to the national camp.”

A berth in the national camp,he says will get him competing at a higher level,training smarter and under international coaches. “Ultimately my goal is to take part in international events. I know that I am a long way from the world standard,but unless I keep believing,there isn’t much point of continuing.I am not going to become a business man or a lawyer. I see the track and I know that my future will be tied to it.”