Health of boy, four, damaged after 40-mile run

A four-year-old Indian boy who ran 40 miles in a bid for a place in the record books, has severely damaged his health, media reports said today, quoting doctors who examined the child.

Police and state welfare authorities in the eastern state of Orissa took the boy, Budhia Singh, for medical tests on Friday after India’s human rights watchdog agency ordered a probe into the case.

In an attempt to gain a place in a local record book, the boy attempted to run 43 miles on Tuesday, but doctors stopped him after 40 when he showed signs of extreme exhaustion after running for more than seven hours in Orissa’s hot, humid climate.

The boy was “undernourished, anaemic and under cardiological stress,” the Hindustan Times newspaper reported today, quoting from the medical report it said it had obtained.

Budhia, a slum resident who has been dubbed India’s Forrest Gump, was discovered two years ago by sports coach Biranchi Das, who has often been accused of exploiting the boy’s athletic talent by forcing him to run long distances for publicity.