Kieren D'Souza
Kieren D'Souza (born 6 January 1993 in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh) is an Indian ultramarathon runner and endurance athlete. In 2016, he became the first Indian to qualify for and finish the Spartathlon, a 246 kilometre footrace from Athens to Sparta held annually in Greece. Kieren, then aged 23, completed the race in 33 hours, 2 minutes and 25 seconds, standing 85th among 370 participants. Up to 2016, only 29 athletes under the age of 25 had completed the race that has been held annually since 1983. Early life Kieren was born on 6 January 1993 in the city of Bilaspur, in Chhattisgarh, but his father, Peter D’Souza's job as a Group Captain with the Indian Air Force meant a childhood of moving schools all over India, 'including the cities of Jodhpur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur and Faridabad'. He attended St. Joseph's College in Bangalore, which is also where he first started running. Running career Beginning He first took up running as an undergrad student in Bangalore in 2011. He says, "To be honest I didn’t know what marathon running all about till I was in college. I was always heavily into sport, but my choice was never running." He started with a 12 kilometre inter-college event in Bangalore, which did not go well. After that, he ran a 10 kilometre event at Nagpur and finished comfortably. It was after that race that he realised that he was "made for such events" and tried a "half marathon at New Delhi, and then a 100 kilometre race at Mt Blanc, and the Salomon Bhatti Lakes 160 kms race." 2014 In 2014, he ran the 111 kilometre La Ultra ultramarathon in Ladakh but failed to finish. He came back in 2016 and won the 111 kilometre version of the race, becoming the first Indian to do so. He posted a time of 15 hours and 30 minutes. The La Ultra is dubbed as the 'cruellest' race on earth, starting at an altitude of 10,500 feet in the Nubra Valley, before going up to "Khardung La, the world's highest motorable pass at 17,700 feet." 2015 In 2015, aged 22, he won the Salomon Bhatti Lakes 160 kilometre ultramarathon in Faridabad, with a time of 20 hours and 32 minutes, over nine hours ahead of the second place finisher. At the time, this was the fastest time recorded by an Indian over a 100 mile race. This qualified him for the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc — Courmayeur Champex Chamonix (UTMB-CCC) — a 100 kilometre race at along the base of Mont Blanc in the Alps. He was the only Indian competitor at the race held in August. He finished with a time of 18 hours 46 minutes and 2 seconds, placing 224th out of 1900 runners. 2016 In 2016, he qualified for the Spartathlon after winning the Salomon Bhatti Lakes ultramarathon. Entry to Spartathlon is through a lottery. The only person on his support crew was his mother Christabel D’Souza. During the race, he "created a new 100-mile