Indore athlete says he is struggling to get US visa to compete in Backyard Ultra Run

Karthik Joshi, an athlete from Indore, says that he is struggling to get Visa to go to the US due to the COVID pandemic, to take part in the Backyard Ultra Run, a race for which he is the only qualifier from India.

This race will be held in the US on October 16 and the athlete has to reach there by October 11.

Coming from a very poor family, Karthik Joshi and his family live on rent in a one-room house. The small room does not even have a place to save Karthik's medals and trophies.

Karthik practices for the race on a treadmill that has been gifted to him by a private company.

While talking tohe said, "I have 3 gold medals. In India, there have been 3-4 Backyard races so far and I have won them all. On January 30 and 31 this year, I had my qualifying race, which lasted for 41 hours. I covered 274 kilometres in this duration. I qualified for the race which will be held in Tennessee on October 16. But due to the COVID crisis in the US, there is a travel ban in that country. I have been struggling to get my visa."

He said that he has won all the Backyard races that have happened in India.

"When I started running, I thought of it as a sport which is not expensive, because after all you only need your clothes and shoes. But as I progressed, I realized that it indeed has a lot of expenses. For this Backyard Race, most of the expenses are covered by the athlete only. I am being sponsored by Path India Ltd for this race," he added.

According to Karthik, the Backyard Ultra Marathon is extremely tough and one of the most popular marathons worldwide and he is preparing hard for it for the last three months while taking only three hours of sleep every day.

He urged the central government and the Union Sports Ministry to help him get his visa so that he gets a chance to make India proud at a global level.

His father Omprakash toldthat he works as a salesman.

"We live in a small room and I am able to earn Rs 15000. We are a total of five members in a room of 100 feet. I wake up every day at 2.30 AM with Karthik. Karthik goes for a run, I go on a cycle with him. I go door to door selling shoes and clothes, my tea shop was closed during the Corona period. Now I am able to earn only about 15 thousand rupees a month, in which it is difficult to run the household expenses and Karthik's expenses," he added.

Despite the odds, the family is determined to train Karthik for the race.

"I want to tell the government that Karthik has qualified in the World Championship. I request Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, MP Shankar Lalwani, and BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya to help him get the visa so that it brings glory to India."

( With inputs from ANI )