Govindan Lakshmanan (born 5 June 1990 in Sokkurani,

Pudukottai district Pudukkottai District is one of the List of districts of Tamil Nadu, 38 districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The city of Pudukkottai is the district headquarters. It is also known colloquially as ''Pudhugai.'' Pudukkottai district i ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, India) is an Indian

distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance running comes two d ...

. On the track, he mostly competes over

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

and

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

, but has also run the half marathon competitively.

Early life

Lakshmanan lost his father to a car accident when he was six, and was

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

by his neighbour S. Loganathan. His mother Jayalakshmi is a small farmer. Under Loganathan's tutelage, Lakshmanan began training in long-distance running when he was 16, along with the former's daughter Suriya, in Youth Sports Club in the village of Kavinadu near the town of Pudukkottai in

Career

He represented India at the

2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships () was the 41st edition of the global championships in cross country running, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held in Guiyang, China on 28 March. It was the ...

, placing 74th overall. Competing over 5000 metres at the 2015 Wuhan Asian Championships, Lakshmanan won the bronze medal with a time of 13:36.62. He won the 10,000 metres silver medal with a time of 29:42.81. At the next Championships, he won the 5000 metres gold medal with a time of 14:54.48, becoming only the third Indian to win gold in the event at the Championships, and the first since 1993. The time was however the slowest in the Championships' history for a winner. The victory earned him a qualification for the London World Championships that year. In London, he ran his personal best of 13:35.69. At the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 A ...

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, Indonesia; he won bronze medal but was later stripped as he was disqualified for lane infringement.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lakshmanan, Govindan 1990 births Living people People from Pudukkottai district Athletes from Tamil Nadu Indian male long-distance runners Indian male cross country runners Asian Games competitors for India Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Asian Games World Athletics Championships athletes for India Asian Athletics Championships winners Tamil sportspeople