Ajay Kumar Saroj [Deleted]

Biography

Ajay Kumar Saroj is an Indian athlete, a long distance runner who usually runs the distance of 1500m in competitions. He has been competing in both 1500m indoor and outdoor competitions.

Ajay Kumar is the son of a Farmer from U.P. His mother is a housewife. He has 2 brothers and 3 sisters. All siblings are involved in Athletics.

Siblings:

• Shashi Kumari- A farmer national level runner. Ajay used to carry water for her during her training when he was just a teen.
• Ajith Kumar- An athlete himself and supportere of Ajay Kumar financialyl adn emotionally

Best Performances

1500m

• 3:41.93, at the 2017 Open National Championships in Chennai
• 3:43:18, at the 2019 Doha Asian Athletics Championships
• 3:43.27, at the Indian grand prix, Delhi 
• 3:44.04: at New Delhi in April 2016
• 3:45.85: at Bhubaneswar, July 2016 (Asian Athletics Championships)
• 3:46.92: at Nanjing, China, August 2014 (2nd Youth Olympic Games)
• 3:47.26: (Indoor) at Doha, Qatar February 2016
• 3:49.52: Bydgoszcz , Poland, July 2016 (IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016)

800m

• 1:49.05: Ajay's best of 1:49.05 came in Chennai in September 2017
• 1:50.21: In Bangalore in July 2016
• 1:55.49: Ajay achieved he timing in Pune on 22 AUG 2019

Achievements

• Gold medal at the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships (2017)
• Gold medal at the 2017 Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
• Ajay Kumar defeated Indian Asian Gold Medalist Jinson Johnson at the Indian Open Championship event (1500m) held at Ranchi in October 2019
• Silver medal at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships in 1500m, with a timing of 3:43:18
• Gold at medal at the 2019 South Asian Games

Video: National Open Athletics 2019, Ajay Kumar Saroj beating Jinson Johnson for the Gold

Timeline

• December 2019: Ajay kumar won the Gold medal at the 2019 South Asian Games ahead of his compatriot Ajeet Kumar
• October 2019: Ajay won Gold Medal at the Indian Open Championship event (1500m) held at Ranchi defeating National record holder Jinson Johnson
• August 30, 2019: Ajay Kumar Saroj won gold at the 59th National Inter-State Athletics Championships held in Lucknow with a timing of 3:44.66. Ajeet Kumar of Gujarat came second with the timing of 3:45.07
• April 2019: He won silver at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships (1500m men) with the timing of 3:43.18 in the finals. He was the only Asian to win the medal, while the other two medals went to athletes imported from Africa.
• February 27, 2019: Ajay won Gold at the Indian Grand Prix-2 athletics meet with a timing of 3:46.10s. 
• September 2018: Ajay clocked 3:46.49s to win Gold at the 2018 National Open Athletics, leaving fellow Railways runner Vishamber Kolekar behind.
• February 2018: Ajay won the Gold at the Asian Games athletics test event clocking 3:43.85s and finished ahead of Saudi Arabia's Mohammad Shaween
• October 2017: Ajay Kumar achieved his personal best of 3:41.93s at the 2017 Open National Championships in Chennai
• July 2017: Ajay won Gold at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships held in Bhubaneswar, India with the time of 3:45.85s, He overtook Jamal Hairane of Qatar who was in the lead until last few seconds
• June 2017: He came second (3:48.91s) at the 21st Federation Cup athletics championships held in Patiala just behind the national record holder Jinson Johnson (3:48.49s)
• April 2016: Ajay (3:44.4s) defeated Jinson Johnson (3:44.9) at the Indian Grand Prix athletics held in Delhi.
• September 2015: He competed in the 800m event where he  clocked 1:54.87s defeating the Reigning champion Sajeesh Joseph
• September 2015: Ajay participated at the 55th Open National athletic championship held in SAI Eastern Centre, Kolkata and won gold with the results of 3:47.33s, interesting to note that Jinson Johnson clocked 3:49.13 at the event and won Bronze
• July 2015: Ajay clocked 3:50.18s at the Inter State Athletics Championships held in chennai winning Gold ahead of Jinson Johnson & Ravinder Singh Rautela

Interesting Facts & Trivia

• Ajay Kumar Saroj was automatically qualified for the World Athletics championship(2017) after winning the Asian Athletics championships(2017), but the Indian authorities did not allow him to participate as his timings were not considered good enough for a world level tournament.
• Saroj's family is entirely involved with athletics, He has two brothers and 3 sisters, his brothers and sisters are also training to be runners. He is the youngest of the 6 children.
• Athletics: Ajay kumar started in athletics at the age of 15.
• He finished in the top 8 at the World Junior Championships.
• He is a 2 time national level champion.
• He became an all Asian Champion in 2017 by winning at the Bubhaneshwar 2017, Asian Athletics Championships.
• Academics: His parents on noticing that he was not very keen on progressing academically, suggested to take Athletics as a passion and career option. He has excelled in it so far.
• GoSports Foundation: Ajay kumar is supported by "GoSports Foundation"- a non-profit organization which seeks to supports sports in India.
• He also runs 800m race occasionally.
• Ajay wants to break the national record of 3:38.00 set by Bahadur Prasad in 1995, Ajay's personal best is 3:43.27, just 5 seconds behind the national record.
• Saroj also has plans to compete in 5000m category, his has clocked 14:33.00 in the 500m discipline.
• He initially liked Archery, and trained for couple of weeks in Jamshedpur, though he hasn't touched bow in  years he watches the game closely and has met Indian top archer Deepika Kumari.
• He discontinued studies after the 12th grade, he was supposed to study Engineering after the 12th grade, but he chose to train in long distance running full time. He was, self admittedly not good at the studies and athletics is his way to glory.
• He used to carry water for his sister Shashi who is also a runner, it introduced the sport to him, he eventually picked it up.
• He used to play sports like Kho-kho, Kabaddi when in school.
• Saroj holds national records at the National level in under 17 and under 18 categories.
• Ajay is supported by Gosports foundation, some of his estimated 35,000 Rs expenditures per month is supported by the foundation along with Ajay' brother Ajith.
• Railways: Ajay works as a ticket checker in his spare time at the Allahabad station. He is affiliated with the Railways, previously he competed for ONGC and UP state.
• He idolises Mo Farrah, a champion runner in long distance running and likes to meet him.
• Ajay Kumar Saroj is participating in the 2019 South Asian Games held in Nepal