What if I ask you who is your favourite Indian Athlete? Your answers would be either Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni or Sunil Chhetri. But, let me tell you all a story about a lesser-known Indian Athlete who has raised the Indian tricolour with pride through his exceptional talent and hard work. His name is Amiya Kumar Mallick
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He is known as the fastest man in India. He was raised in a middle class family in Cuttak, Orrisa.
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At the age of 14, he bagged a silver medal in 100m race in Junior Asian meet held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2006.
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At the age of 16, he won his first-ever gold medal in 200m race in Commonwealth Youth Games, held in Pune, India.
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In 2011, Amiya faced a career-threatening quadriceps injury. He was on a 6 month complete bed rest and the Doctors told him that he’ll not be able to perform at his peak again. Even after his recovery, the injury was so harmful that he walked with crutches. But, Amiya was determined to achieve his goals and believed in himself.
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His dedication showed the result in 2013. He made a comeback by winning a Gold medal in 200m race by completing it in 21.22 seconds in National Open Athletic Championship held in Ranchi.
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After making a comeback, Kumar started training with Glen Mills, a popular Jamaican coach known to have trained athletes like Usain Bolt & Yohan Blake.
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On April 18th, 2016 he created a national record in 100m competing at the National Federation Cup with a timing of 10.26 seconds. (he is still the current national record holder)
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In 2019, he won another Gold Medal in 59th National Open Athletics Championship.
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He’s now got his eyes on bagging a medal at the Olympics next year.
It’s strange the=at how little is reported of him in spite of Common Wealth titles!