Dharun Ayyasamy (born 31 December 1996) is an Indian track

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

. He specialises in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

and the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Summer Olympics, Olympic Sport of athletics, athletics programme since 1900 Summer Olympics, 1900 for men and since 1984 Summer Olympics, 1984 for women. On a ...

events. He participated in the

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track and field, track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap, totaling 1600 meters. It is traditionally the final event of ...

event at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. He's the first and only Indian to run below 49sec (48.80sec) in 400m Hurdles.

Early life

Dharun was born on 31 December 1996 in a village called Ravuthampalayam near

Avinashi Avinashi () (previously known as ''Thirupukkoliyur'') is a municipality in the Tiruppur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Avinashi is one among the nine taluks of the district. It is one of the most popular pilgrim destinations in t ...

Tiruppur district Tiruppur District is one of the 38 districts of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu, formed in 22 February 2009. Dharapuram was the largest taluk by area in the district. The district is well-developed and industria ...

. When he was in fourth grade, his father died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. Dharun's mother is a school teacher while his sister Sathya plays

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

for Tamil Nadu. Dharun completed his schooling at The Century Foundation School in Tirupur where he was coached by Mr. Alagesan and he never looked back since then. He later studied

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

at the Alva's College of Arts in

Moodabidri Moodubidire (''Mūḍubidire''; also called Mudbidri, Moodbidri and Bedra) is a town and taluk in Dakshina Kannada district. It lies 34 km northeast of the district headquarters, Mangalore, in Karnataka, India. Because of widely grown b ...

, Karnataka. He represented Tamil Nadu at kho kho before switching to athletics in tenth grade.

Career

Dharun won the

gold medal at the

2016 South Asian Games The 2016 South Asian Games, officially the XII South Asian Games, is a major multi-sport event which took place from 5 February to 16 February 2016 in Guwahati and Shillong, India. A total of 2,672 athletes competed in 226 events over 22 sports ...

Guwahati Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...

with a time of 50.54 seconds, finishing 0.03 seconds ahead of fellow Indian Jithin Paul whom he overtook at the last hurdle. In July 2016, Dharun was part of the relay team that broke the national 4 × 400 metres relay record at

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and qualified for the Olympics. The quartet of Dharun, Mohammad Anas, Kunhu Muhammed and Arokia Rajiv clocked 3:00:91, rewriting the national record of 3:02.17 set by themselves four weeks earlier in Turkey. The performance helped the relay team jump to 13th place in the world rankings. It was the third time a men's relay team from India qualified for the Olympics, after 1964 and 2000. In August 2018, Dharun won the

400 meter hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

silver medal at the

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

with a timing of 48.96 seconds setting a new national record. In Sr Federation cup 2019, Dharun broke his own National record for the 3rd time in 400m hurdles by clocking 48.80sec .

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ayyasamy, Dharun 1996 births Living people People from Tiruppur district Indian male sprinters Athletes from Tamil Nadu Olympic athletes for India Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for India Asian Games athletes for India Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Tamil sportspeople South Asian Games gold medalists for India South Asian Games medalists in athletics Commonwealth Games athletes for India World Athletics Championships athletes for India Asian Games silver medalists in athletics (track and field)