All you need to know about Rio Olympics qualifier Sudha Singh

A National record holder for seven straight years in 3000m steeplechase,  Sudha Singh has now achieved yet another feat. That of qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The road to Rio opened with her clocking 9:31:86 seconds in the women’s 3000 metres steeplechase on the second day of the Federation Cup. Her timing did not fetch her the gold, but inspite of the silver, she has managed to make the cut and earn the Olympic berth.

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So if your curiosity is piqued about this 29 year old athlete, here are a few things we dug up about her:

• Sudha finished at 9:31.86, breaking her own record in 3000m steeplechase race from Asian Games in 2014 when she had clocked 9:35.37.

• Born is Raebareli in UP, she has been an Asian Games winner and a four times National Champion. The 29-year-old has also been a silver medallist in the Asian Championship three times.

• She had to challenge her stern coach Nikolai Snesarev’s decision of making her run the marathon and run the steeplechase instead. As it turns out, it worked out well for her, and she secured her Rio Olympics 2016 ticket.

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• It was in the 2014 Asian Games that Sudha had last participated in a competition in steeplechase and she had little practice before going ahead with it, yet she broke her own record time. She came second after Lalita Babar’s winning performance of 9:27.09 seconds.

• Sudha practices two times a day in the morning and evening for about three hours every day. She runs close to 270km every week to be the fastest female runner in the country.

• Her best performance in different kinds of races including half marathon, marathon and 3000m steeplechase race are 1:11:46, 2:35:35 and 9:31.86 respectively.