30 days to Tokyo Olympics: Remembering Sriram Singh's heroics at the 1976 Montreal Olympics

The 1976 Olympics will be etched in the memory of Indian fans as a bad dream. The Indian Olympic contingent drew a blank sheet for the 1st time since the 1924 Olympics. The failure of the Indian hockey team had come as a shock to the entire nation.

The heroics of Sriram Singh at the Montreal Olympics

However, as India gazed at its worst outing at the Summer Olympics since becoming independent, there was one athlete who came in like a knight in shining armor.

In his customary style, leading from the front, an Indian half-miler by the name of Sriram Singh began his quest for Olympic glory with a scintillating time of 50.85 seconds in the first lap of the 800m finals for men at the 1976 Olympics.

The 1974 Tehran Asian Games gold medalist was in good shape in the lead up to the 1976 Olympics. Sriram Singh clocked a time of 1:45.86 minutes in his qualification heat at the 1976 Olympics.

With this timing, he bettered his own Asian record from the 1974 Asian Games. In the semi-finals, he clocked a time of 1:46.43 minutes to make it to the finals.

In the finals, the field was fully loaded with champion athletes. Sriram Singh was probably the weakest of all the competitors that had made their place in the finals. He started his race very swiftly and after the two turn stagger unified, he was just behind the eventual champion, Alberto Juantorena of Cuba.

Sriram Singh quickly picked up his pace, moved ahead of Alberto Juantorena and took the bell at 50.85 seconds.

👍👍. Flashback 1976. Our Sriram Singh enters the Olympics 800m final. For a few seconds at the 400 mark, he leads Cuban Alberto Juantorena (in white). In the end, Juantorena wins 1.43,50. Sriram ji breaks national record but is #7 at 1:45,77. Rare video: https://t.co/XlwlU3MbIa pic.twitter.com/U2PJCxCKeC

— Rohit Bansal 🇮🇳 (@theRohitBansal) June 28, 2018

Alberto Juantorena, looking at this sudden injection of pace from Sriram Singh, pulled his socks up and overtook the Indian with his long strides. Sriram Singh had given it his all by that time.

He was pulled back to the 4th position in the field as the likes of Ivo van Damme of Belgium and Rick Wohlhuter of the USA came from behind and overtook him at the 500-meter mark.

Slowly, a few other athletes also started to overtake him and by the time he reached the home straight, he was lying in the 7th position. He made his final move as the medal positions were out of sight. He tried his best to overtake the Yugoslavian athlete Luciano Sušanj but finished just behind him.

Alberto Juantorena celebrating after crossing the line in the finals of 800m (Source: Wikipedia)

Sriram Singh clocked a time of 1:45.77 minutes in the 800m finals at the 1976 Montreal Olympics to finish 7th. He clocked 54.92 seconds for his second lap. Compared to his first lap, this pace was pedestrian.

Alberto Juantorena went on to become the eventual gold medalist that day. He smashed the world record by clocking a time of 1:43.50 minutes. Alberto Juantorena later attributed Sriram Singh's front running as a pivotal factor in him achieving the world record time.

Beaming with confidence, Alberto Juantorena later went on to win a gold medal in the 400m event as well, 3 days later.

The legacy of Sriram Singh

The time clocked by Sriram Singh in the 800m finals for men at the 1976 Montreal Olympics was the Asian Record for the next 18 years until it was broken by Lee Jin-il of South Korea in 1994.

It took almost 42 years for an Indian to beat that mark of Sriram Singh from the 1976 Olympics. Jinson Johnson clocked a time of 1:45.65 secs at the 2018 Interstate Athletics Championships, such was the magnitude of his mark.

Sriram Singh went on to become an Asian Games gold medalist in the 1978 edition of the quadrennial games, repeating his achievement from 4 years back. He went on to reach the semi-finals of the 1980 Moscow Olympics as well in his pet event.

Overall, Sriram Singh went on to bag 2 gold medals and 3 silver medals at the Asian Games. He also won 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal at the Asian Athletics Championships.

Since taking retirement from athletics, Sriram Singh, an army man from Rajputana Rifles, has taken up the responsibility of mentoring young athletes. He has been quite vocal about the problems that Indian athletics has been facing and has advocated the need to nurture athletes from the junior level.

The passion he still has for the sport speaks volumes of his legacy.

Although Sriram Singh didn't win an Olympic medal on that fateful day in Montreal, the electric pace he set up in the 800m finals will remain etched in the memories of Indian sports fans forever.