RAMESHWOR BOHARA

Hari Bahadur Rokaya is a three-time national marathon gold medallist. He's achieved another hat-trick by winning the Everest marathon thrice. He has qualified for the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics marathon and won a silver in the South Asian Games marathon. The 45-year-old Rokaya now lives in Jumla and is working to set up a high Altitude Athletic Training Centre in this remote corner of the Karnali. When we met him, he was training more than 20 long-distance runners at 2,400 m above sea level along the banks of the Tila River. One of his trainees, 13-year-old Umesh Rokaya, is training to take part in the 2010 Everest marathon. He is also training 12 army runners for next month's Army Cross Country Race. Rokaya is working to raise the Rs 10 million necessary to start his centre, but meanwhile is trying to at least finish building a 200m race track in Jumla, which has no stadium. Unfortunately, the athlete selection process is dominated by big people in Kathmandu and Jumla is always left out, as it was for the South Asian Games selections and the Asian Athletics junior Championships in Singapore. Still, Rokaya is not deterred from his dream, he is still running, and he has got his son to hook him up to the Internet so he can take on the task of fundraising. And that is an even more difficult marathon.