Buffalo milk and army behind unexpected Olympian Akshdeep's success
Young racewalker Akshdeep Singh used to drink a lot of milk from the buffaloes raised by his farmer father, who urged his son to take up athletics in order to earn a position in the Indian Army. On Tuesday, Singh unexpectedly secured spots for the 2024 Olympics and the World Championships.
Akshdeep, a native of Kahneke Village in the Barnala District of Punjab, along with seasoned race walker Priyanka Goswami, became the first athletes from India to qualify for both the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August and the Paris Olympics next year after winning gold in the 20km event of the National Race Walking Championships in Ranchi.
"My father is a small farmer and my mother a home-maker. We have a small piece of land where my father does farming. When I was a child, I also used to join my father in cultivation. I would drink a lot of milk from a couple of buffaloes my father kept at our house. That gave me the strength and stamina," the 23-year-old Akshdeep told PTI after his feat.
"It was tough for my father to run the family from the meagre income he earned, take care of my studies. So, he wanted me to join the Army and for that encouraged me to do some sport," explained the young man, who would compete in the Olympic Games and the World Championships with the finest in the field.
Akshdeep broke the previous national record of 1:20:16 held by veteran Sandeep Kumar by clocking 1 hour 19 minutes and 55 seconds to become the first Indian race walker to do so in the 20km distance. The qualifying time for the men's 20km race walk at the 2024 Summer Olympics and the August World Championships in Budapest is 1:20:10.
For the young man who began his career five years ago and has advanced to the two major international competitions so quickly, it's a dream come true. He only started senior-level competition three years ago, and he only began training at Bengaluru's Sports Authority of India Center in 2021.
"In 2015, I appeared for Indian Army recruitment and after that I went for trials at the Punjabi University in Patiala. I got selected and stayed there for around three years.
"There, I met Gurdev Singh sir, a famous race walk coach. He told me that he would teach race walking and I would do well in that. After that, I took part in the Khelo India Games in 2018, that is how I started my career," Akshdeep said.
"It was a lot of struggle initially but my parents supported all through. Also, race walking is not that expensive an event; food and accommodation were free at the university and Gurdev sir also helped me a lot."
Although Akshdeep placed 12th, his promise as a race walker was revealed in 2020 at the same National Race Walking Championships in Ranchi, when he recorded 1:26:12.
"I began in the senior level in the 2020 edition of this Championships and did my personal best (1:26:12) at that time. Next year (2021), I was called up to join the camp at the SAI Centre in Bengaluru and I improved steadily from there on." After recording 1:23:14 in the previous championships held here in 2022 to earn the silver medal, Akshdeep claimed he was motivated to clock under 1:20 this time.
"Our foreign coach (Tatyana Sibileva) did the planning and made the strategy regarding how to go about the race and I stuck to her instructions. "So, my gold and qualifying for World Championships and Olympics was not a surprise for me as I was training for that goal. I was confident about doing it.”
"Now, I will prepare well and try to give world-class performances in the Olympics and World Championships. There is still one-and-a-half years to go for the Olympics and I hope to do well there."