Kheta Ram

Kheta Ram aka Khetha Ram / KhetaRam (born 20 September 1986) is an Indian athlete and two time Asian Championships finalist^[1] who represented India at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the marathon event. He finished 26th in the men's marathon at the Rio Olympics.^[2] He is also in the Indian Army.^[3]

Kheta Ram

Kheta Ram, Marathon athlete representing India in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio
Personal information
Born	(1986-09-20) 20 September 1986 (age 38) Khokhsar, Barmer, Rajasthan, India
Sport
Country	India
Sport	Athletics
Event	Marathon
Medal record South Asian Games 2016 Guwahati Marathon

Career

Ram enrolled for the Indian Army through the general quota to earn a steady income and is posted at Samba, Jammu. He has been representing India in various events, including the World Military Games. With an impressive array of races and achievements, recently, he and his coach Surendra Singh decided that he should train and run a marathon distance rather than track and field events of intermediate distances as he has been doing.^[4] He has trained at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, in the thin air of Thangaraj Stadium in Wellington / Coonoor in the Nilgiri Hills so as to increase his heart and lung capacity, and most recently at the SAI complex in Bangalore, India. His VO2 Max is around 84 (ml of Oxygen used in 1 min per kg of bodyweight, comparable to Lance Armstrong), with a resting heart rate of around 45bpm.^[5]

He represented India at the 2016 Summer Olympics, qualifying with a marathon time of 02:17:23 in the 2016 Mumbai Marathon along with two other Indian marathoner men, Gopi T and Nitendra Singh Rawat.^{[citation needed]}

Competition records

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Time	Reference
2011	Bangalore Interstate	Bangalore, India	1st	10,000m	29:20:35	[6]
2011	Sunfest World 10K	Bangalore, India	22nd Overall / 3rd Indian	10 km Road	30:34	[6][7]
2011	New Delhi Half Marathon	New Delhi, India	22nd Overall / 2nd Indian	Half marathon	1:04:44	[6]
2012	Vadodara 15M	Vadodara, India	1st	15M Road	47:11	[6]
2013	Indian Grand Prix	Patiala, India	1st	5,000m	13:15:32 (1 lap short)	[8]
2013	Indian Grand Prix	Patiala India	1st	3,000m	08:06:33	[6]
2013	Asian Grand Prix, 1st Leg	Bangkok, Thailand	2nd	5,000m	14:55:12	[6][9][10]
2013	Asian Athletic Championships	Pune, India	4th	10,000m	29:35:72
2014	Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships	Patiala, India	1st	5,000m	13:49:17	[11][12][13][14]
2014	National Open Athletics Championships	New Delhi, India	2nd	10,000m	29:32:75	[15][16]
2014	Asian Games	Incheon, South Korea	7th	5,000m	13:37:40	[6]
2015	Vasai Virar Mayor's marathon	Virar, Mumbai Metro area, India	1st	Marathon	02:22:32	[17][18]
2016	Mumbai Marathon	Mumbai, India	3rd Indian / 15th Overall	Marathon	2:17:23	[19][20][21][22][23]
2016	South Asian Games	Guwahati, India	3rd	Marathon	02:21:14	[24]
2016	Summer Olympics	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	26th	Marathon	02:15:26	2017	Mumbai tata marathon	Mumbai	1st	Marathon	02:19:55	2018	IDBI HALF MARATHON	DELHI	1st	Half marathon	01:09:15

Personal life

Born in Khokhsar(East) in the Barmer district of Rajasthan, Kheta Ram's humble origin is as a Naib Subedar of the Jat Regiment. He has one sister and four brothers. He used to run 4 km every day through the desert to a school that only had classes up to 8th grade. Many fast runners are from hilly areas which is thought to give them a red blood cell, lung efficiency and endurance advantage. In contrast, Kheta Ram's abilities are thought to come from the strengthening his calves and hamstrings may have received from running in the sand.

He joined the Army at Age 18 as a means of earning a steady income, and got recognized for his athletic abilities. The Indian Army excuses world class sports persons from active duty, allowing them to train as an athlete full-time. He would like to use his privileges as an athlete to solve the acute water issues of his village. His parents and wife are not educated and don't comprehend that he will represent the country in the Olympics.^[4] He is the only earning member of his family and sends his savings home to his parents, wife and two children. His biggest expense is his monthly purchase of shoes (priced at roughly Rs 10,000 per pair) to accommodate the number of miles that the athlete runs each month. As of mid 2016, he does not have any corporate sponsorship and has to purchase his own shoes.^[5]

He and his fellow athletes spend 11 out of 12 months of the year away from home and without meeting their families, a sacrifice that they must make in order to compete on the world stage.^[5]

References

1. "Kheta Ram Profile: Men's Marathon". The Indian Express. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
2. "Rio Olympics: India's Thanackal Gopi, Kheta Ram clock personal best in marathon - Times of India". The Times of India. Rio De Janeiro. PTI. 21 August 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
3. "Indian Marathoners – Bharat at Rio '16 – Track and Field Sports News". trackfield.in. Archived from the original on 7 April 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
4. "Kheta Ram: 10 things to know about India's long-distance runner heading to Rio Olympics 2016". 24 July 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
5. "Cool Runnings: India's marathon men".
6. "Profile of Ram KHETA | All-Athletics.com". www.all-athletics.com. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
7. "- Deccan Herald". m.deccanherald.com. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
8. "Kheta Ram wins 5000m amid controversy". The Hindu. 1 April 2013. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
9. "Asian Grand Prix 2013 | Singapore Athletics". www.singaporeathletics.org.sg. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
10. "2013 Asian Grand Prix Results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 August 2016.
11. "Kheta Ram sets meet record in 5000m to qualify for Asian Games". 16 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
12. "Kheta Ram shatters event record in 5,000m at National Athletics Championships". 16 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
13. "Kheta Ram breaks 7-year-old meet record, qualifies for Asian Games". Retrieved 1 August 2016.
14. "Kheta Ram sets new meet record in men's 5000m to qualify for Asian Games 2014". 17 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
16. "20th Asian Athletics Championships | Athletics Federation of India". indianathletics.in. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
17. "Marathon: Never expected to win on debut, says Kheta Ram". Retrieved 1 August 2016.
18. "Debutant Kheta Ram wins Marathon 2015 - Mumbai Messenger - The Local Weekly Newspaper, Mumbai Local Newspaper, Local Newspaper of Mumbai". 27 November 2015. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
19. "Gopi, Kheta Ram qualify for Olympics; Rawat sets course record - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
20. "Gopi, Kheta Ram qualify for Olympics; Rawat sets course record". The Hindu. 17 January 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
21. "More than 40,000 people participate in the Mumbai Marathon 2016 - Firstpost". 17 January 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
22. "Rawat sets course record; Gopi, Kheta Ram qualify for Rio". Retrieved 1 August 2016.
23. "Gopi T, Kheta Ram seal Rio berths | The Asian Age". Retrieved 1 August 2016.
24. "2016 South Asian Games Results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 February 2016.