There are over a billion people in India. So why havent they had any great runners yet?

Belly up to an Indian buffet, have a decent meal, then try and run anytime in the next 4-5 hours. For bonus points, do it on a hundred degree day! The answer will be forthcoming.

There was this one back a few years ago. Ran the 800 meters. A woman I think....

I'm just guessing, but maybe track and field just is not very popular there and not well participated in.

Why aren't there any great American Cricket players?? We have over 300 million people...

There are alot of indians. First the majority of Indians are muslims which means that they must follow ramadan which is a period in which they fast. I once skipped a lunch to do a run and it was very difficult, imagine a month. That can really mess up a runners schedule.

Also in a country such as india, there isnt alot of marketing of track and field there. Sports such as cricket and tennis reign supreme over there.

because indians are naturally slow.

Actually, most Indians are Hindus.

I think it's probably because most Indians aren't interested in track. It's like another poster said- why don't Americans have any good cricket players? Because most Americans don't play cricket. Same with track in India.

El G was Muslim he did pretty well

Does Budhia Singh count as a good distance runner?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budhia_Singh

i know im a dick wrote:

There was this one back a few years ago. Ran the 800 meters. A woman I think....

The high point of Sriram Singh's career was the 800m race in 1976 Montreal Olympics. Prior to the competition he had never run on synthetic tracks. The qualifying round, the semifinal and the final were run on successive days. In the first race, he broke his own Asian record with a time of 1:45.94. In the semifinal, he came second in a time of 1:46.40.

In the final, Singh led at the bell with a time of 50.85 ahead of Cuban Alberto Juantorena's 50.90. Juantorena caught up with him around the 550m mark and won in a world record time of 1:43.50. Singh faded away in the home straight to finish seventh with a time of 1:45.77. Juantorena later attributed his world record to Sriram's front running.

Sriram Singh's time stood as an Asian record till 1994 and as of 2007 is still the Indian national record. He retained his 800m gold medal in the 1978 Asian Games (1:48.80), but was eliminated in the heats of the same event in the Moscow Olympics.

Because they don't have Kenyan and Mexican immigrants.

why? Outsourcing!

Because I can't get time off from the Kwik-E-Mart to train.

Nah. I was thinking of this one

There was "The Flying Sikh" back in the late 50s-early 60s. Quite a good 200-400m man. Milkha Singh was his name.

mighty porn stache wrote:

There was "The Flying Sikh" back in the late 50s-early 60s. Quite a good 200-400m man. Milkha Singh was his name.

He was 4th in the 1960 Olympic 400 and his son plays on the pro golf tour.

A first hand opinion, off the top of my head:

1) A mental block against taking up sports on a full-time basis. Study first, play later.

2) Cricket. It's a pox on talent in other sports, including track.

3) Neglect and lack of infrastructure. If it's not cricket, there's no money. Corrupt officials who often outnumber athletes in delegations to the Olympics and WCs.

4) No college track programs like the NCAAs. College is for studying, not running, silly!

4) Climate. Try doing 15 milers when it's 35C with humidity.

I'm a hobby jogger by letsrun standards, but people back home look at me as though I'm on crack for running 50+ mpw.

FWIW, Veena Reddy is an elite female runner in the DC area of Indian descent. She won the Army 10 Miler last year, and ran 2:38 at the 2008 Women's Olympic Marathon trials.

Well there's this guy called Sebastian Coe who I heard was quite good, and his mother was Indian...