Not many remember Naib Subedar Shivnath Singh of the Bihar Regimental Centre.
A barefooted long-distance runner from Bihar, Shivnath is the greatest Indian marathon runner. He is also perhaps the greatest sportsperson from undivided Bihar.
Jaipal Singh Munda, an Oxford Blue who led India to a hockey gold at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928, and Nawada born Sheoo Mewalal, a legendary footballer who plied his trade in Calcutta, and represented India in the 1948 London Olympics and scored the winning goal in the finals of the inaugural Asian Games against Iran in 1951 are the only two who can be compared to him.
Shivnath Singh’s international long-distance running career started with the 1973 Asian Championship in Marikina, Philippines. He won a silver each in 5,000m and 10,000m. He repeated the silver-winning performance, in both events in the 1975 championship in Seoul, South Korea. In between, he won the 5,000 m gold and 10,000 m silver at the Tehran Asiad in 1974. Following his Asian Games success, he was one of the recipients of the Arjuna Award.
After the Seoul championship in 1975, Shivnath switched to running a marathon. It is said that the switch was caused by his inability to win a gold at the Asian Championships, the second time in a row.
At the Montreal Olympics, in 1976, his maiden international marathon run surprised everyone when he clocked 2hr 15m 58s to be placed 11th. He dropped out of the 1980 Moscow Olympic marathon.
In 1978, Shivnath ran the fastest marathon by an Indian by completing the course in 2 hours and 12 minutes, which was initially recorded as 2 hours 11 minutes and 59 seconds. If he had run this fast in Montreal, he would perhaps have ended being fifth, pushing Lasse Viren to the sixth position. And, had he run the marathon in Moscow and clocked his 1978 best, he would have been ranked fourth.
To put Shivnath Singh’s fastest run in the right perspective, it might be useful to mention that Waldemar Cierpinski of the then East Germany won the marathon in both Montreal and Moscow Olympics, by clocking 2hr 09m 55s and 2hr 11m 03s respectively. Who knows in a close race what might have happened in Moscow, if only Naib Subedar could participate!
The current men’s marathon world record is 2 hours, 1 minute and 39 seconds, set by Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya in June 2018. Shivnath’s best is way behind Kipchoge’s, but we must also understand, compared to the minimal training expense of Shivnath Singh, Kipchoge spends thousands of dollars in training and also has a host of pace setters, as part of his training team, to help him maintain high speed.
Humble origins
Long-distance running has become very tactical now. Kipchoge also became the first marathon runner in the world to run a sub 2 hours marathon on October 12, 2019. He completed the 26.2 mile run in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds, but it was not recognised as an official marathon world record because it was not in an open competition, besides he used a team of rotating pacemakers.
Shivnath Singh. Photo: Facebook.
It has been 43 years and no Indian has been able to run a faster marathon than Shivnath’s 2 hour 12 minutes in 1978! One must also not forget that he ran barefoot, which must have caused him immense pain and grief; and he is from an era when Indian athletes had no such facilities as they exist now.
He was a self-made athlete who was born into a family with modest means in village Majharia, in Buxar district of Bihar. He probably took up running to get employment with the Indian Army, which many villagers still do.
There is an interesting story about Shivnath’s obsession to run, narrated by his brother. Ilyas Babar, the legendary coach who trained many Indian middle and long-distance runners, wanted to eat ‘paan’.
He instructed Shivnath to keep running till he came back from the market. Once in the market, he got busy chatting with his acquaintances. Babar returned after 2 hours and to his utter surprise found Shivnath still running at the same pace, so he asked, “Why are you still running?”. “How can I disobey the guru?”, evidently, was the reply.
Shivnath Singh moved to Jamshedpur after his army stint to join the security department of TISCO (Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited). Unfortunately, he died prematurely in 2003. He was just 57! Today, Shivnath remains an unknown soldier to many, who toiled hard to win laurels for the country. His exploits are not known to even the villagers where he was born, let alone the people of Bihar, lament his extended family members who still live in village Majharia in Buxar. The family has made many petitions to the district and state government to at least name a stadium after the great son of the soil. To no avail!
In remembrance of Shivnath Singh, last year, an organisation in Jaipur started the Runner’s Day on July 11, his birthday. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year also this event was a virtual run. One sincerely hopes that we can see a physical marathon next year where the entire country joins in.
The country needs more such gestures to highlight the achievements of our forgotten sporting greats. We need many aspiring Shivnath Singhs, not just in long-distance running but in every sporting discipline. We need sporting icons to inspire our youngsters to play all kinds of sports, and not just cricket.
Ranajit Bhattacharyya is associated with Pratham’s ASER Centre.