Sriram Singh

                   Sriram Singh

Personal information
Full name
Sriram Singh Shekhawat
Nationality
Indian
Born
November 14, 1948 (age 65)
Badnagar , Rajasthan , India
Sport
Country
India
Sport
Track and field athletics
Event(s)
800 metres
Club
Rajputana Rifles
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)
outdoor: 1:45.77
(25 July 1976, Indian record)
Updated on September 20, 2009.
Sriram Singh Shekhawat (born 14 November 1948
in Badnagar , Rajasthan ) was an Indian middle
distance runner.
Sriram Singh joined Rajputana Rifles in 1968
where he came under the influence of the coach
Ilyas Babar . Babar persuaded him to shift his focus
from 400m to 800m.
In the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok, he was
beaten to the second place in the 800 by Jimmy
Crampton of Burma . Singh went out in the heats in
the Munich Olympics in 1972 but his time of
1:47.7 bettered Crampton's Asian record. He
improved it to 1:47.6 while winning the gold in the
Teheran Asian Games of 1974 .
The high point of Sriram Singh's career was the
800m race in 1976 Montreal Olympics . Prior to the
competition he had never run on synthetic tracks.
The qualifying round, the semifinal and the final
were run on successive days. In the first race, he
broke his own Asian record with a time of 1:45.94.
In the semifinal, he came second in a time of
1:46.40.
In the final, Singh led at the bell with a time of
50.85 ahead of Cuban Alberto Juantorena 's 50.90.
Juantorena caught up with him around the 550m
mark and won in a world record time of 1:43.50.
Singh faded away in the home straight to finish
seventh with a time of 1:45.77. Juantorena later
attributed his world record to Sriram's front
running.
Sriram Singh's time stood as an Asian record till
1994 and as of 2011 is still the Indian national
record. He retained his 800m gold medal in the
1978 Asian Games (1:48.80), but was eliminated in
the heats of the same event in the Moscow
Olympics .
Achievements
Year
Tournament
Venue
Result
Extra
1970
Asian Games
Bangkok, Thailand
2nd
800 m
1974
Asian Games
Tehran , Iran
1st
800 m
1978
Asian Games
Bangkok, Thailand
1st
800 m