Stabbed in his chest just three months before the Delhi half marathon,Santosh Kumar finished the 21.097 kilometre race on Sunday as the second-best Indian runner behind Deepchand Saharan and the 18th fastest athlete overall. But the Varanasi-born Armyman is not satisfied with the miraculous turnaround. Santosh wants a top three finish next year in the event dominated by Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes. Riding down the over-crowded one-way streets of Bangalore on a two-wheeler at 3 in the afternoon,Santosh Kumar felt a tug on his neck at a traffic signal. A few seconds and a missing silver chain later,Santosh began trotting down the road after the robber to retrieve his possession. Not too difficult for a professional marathon runner. When I caught him,he stabbed me. It put me out of training for a while. This is a sport where if you dont train for a month or two,it is as good as beginning from scratch. Its not like cricket or football where you can quickly get back to form. Luckily I have managed to turn it around,but it definitely hindered my preparations, Santosh said. Talking about the result of the race,Santosh said that finishing as the second best Indian runner was not good enough. Indian athletes need to get going if we are to compete with the best in the world. I have ambitions of finishing in the top three overall,not just the top three in local athletes. I am working towards my goal. Although Santosh hails from UP,he has shifted base to Bangalore to prepare for the CWG. My aim is to be amongst the medals at the Games. This served as ideal practice for the event. But the marathoner believes that without support from both the central and state governments,the quality of athletes in India will never reach world standards. It is not easy to be a runner in India. We all have day jobs from 9 am to 5 pm. You cant expect us to do the work in office and then train for 3-4 hours everyday. It demands complete dedication. We need to be concentrating more on the sport if we have to get anywhere, he said.
