Eight-year-old Mhow boy finishes 11-km marathon in 59 mins

Shashank Batham of Colonel’s Academy, Mhow, stunned the audience and fellow runners as India’s youngest marathon runner at the “Run Bhopal Run” Marathon. The eight-year-old boy completed the 11-km run in 59 minutes.

Shashank Batham of Colonel’s Academy, Mhow, stunned the audience and fellow runners as India’s youngest marathon runner at the “Run Bhopal Run” Marathon. The eight-year-old boy completed the 11-km run in 59 minutes.

Shashank Batham of Colonel’s Academy, Mhow. (HT)

Although, the minimum age of participation in the marathon is 18 years, Shashank, a Class 3 student, was given a special permission by concerned authorities to run at the marathon held on December 6, 2015 at Bhopal.

Shashank has always been encouraged by his parents and school to exploit his talent of running on tracks.

His father said the boy dreams to run like Milkha Singh and runs for 30 km everyday to breach his own set target. Shashank’s mother Sunita Batham said, “A fan of Usain Bolt, Shashank loves to watch his videos. He idolizes Milkha Singh and dreams to make the entire nation proud like him one day.”

Shashank was applauded by fellow students and blessed by his school principal Keran Bahadur for completing the marathon.