This is story of Dattu Bhokanal, an Indian Athlete who has made up to the Rio Olympics in his very first attempt. After hearing his story you will definitely feel proud of this youngster and his achievements. You will be surprised to know that four years ago this boy was a daily wage laborer breaking stones in a small village in Maharashtra. After his father's sudden demise, to support his family, he joined the Indian Army and then with Army's training, support, motivation and not to forget his own consistent hard work and painstaking efforts elevated him to the Rio Olympics. August 10th will be the proud moment for Bhokanal who will represent India in the single sculls event at Rio Olympics. (Rio 2016: Dattu Bhokanal rows into quarterfinals after finishing third in heats)

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS



Born on 5 April 1991, Dattu Bhokanal started working with his father at an age of 9 in crushing stones, his father used to take jobs of digging wells in Talegaon village in the district of Nasik. As Dattu remembers that he started breaking stones with hammer while he was in the 4th standard, for the next 10 years he worked for almost 8 hours daily breaking stones, lifting huge boulders, to help his father. Down-to-earth and humble in nature, Dattu Bhokanal was speaking from his heart, "While I was 9 years of age I used to go with my father helping him in his work of digging wells in the village. I used to do this job to earn our daily living. It was very painstaking work. Throughout the day we use to work and rest at night. We used to break stones continuously for eight hours, a lunch break for an hour. I had to break the rock with iron hammers as the crane wouldn't take the load of a heavy boulder. In those days I didn't know what is the importance of Olympics, I had some info about the Indian Army." (RIO 2016 FULL COVERAGE)

NO CLUE ABOUT OLYMPICS



Till recent times i.e four years ago, Dattu did not have any idea about what the Olympics meant or what is a rowing event. In his native village situated around 50 kms from Nasik city, Dattu spent his childhood breaking stones and it was there, where unknowingly his endurance level started increasing, his stamina and his body muscles started developing as he used to continuously break stones and keep on lifting huge boulders. Then suddenly after the tragic death of his father, his life took a turn, destiny had something different in store for him. Dattu became emotional as he remembered his father "For 10 years I worked with him, at the end of 2011 my father passed away, there was no one to support the family, then one my friends informed me about army recruitment at Pune. I had completed my matriculation, I boarded a bus for Pune. I got selected. My aim then was to undergo army training, accept whatever posting I get and take care of my family."

SOLDIER TO ATHLETE



Dattu Bhokanal did not have any idea about the Olympics. Rowing or single sculls event was far from his imagination. At the end of 2012 with one year's soldier training, on one fine day Dattu was told to stand in the line where the boys were imparted training of rowing. Initially for Dattu Bhokanal a boat meant a ship and so he thought what is the need to go on a ship if its Army, he didn't even know how to swim. But having no choice he did what he was told to do and started rowing. "Will you believe that I did not know how to swim while I took rowing," Dattu Bhokanal was telling his transformation into an athlete. "Our company subedar Kudarat Ali, he saw my height and said I was fit for rowing, that's it I did not have any say or choice, I just did what was told to me, after three months of training as an army sepoy, I started training in rowing event."



VICTORIES & MEDALS



With three months of training in Bombay and with the sappers group in Pune, Dattu participated for Inter Army Rowing Competition. In the first year itself Dattu won 4 gold medals in inter-battalion rowing competition. Then he won 2 gold medals at the National Rowing competition. Then he was sent for international rowing competitions and then there was no looking back. Dattu started shinning. One international medal in Korea and one international medal in China.

INJURY FORCED DATTU TO RETURN TO HIS ARMY UNIT

After the Asian Games Dattu was not healing and so Army had decided to send him back to his unit but his coach saw some natural talent in Dattu's rowing style and he pleaded the office incharge to give a second chance to Dattu and it was this opportunity which Dattu needed to prove himself. Under the guidance of his coach Dattu started his medical fitness training.

Dattu's Coach, Paul Singh Mokha shared, "When I arrived a year ago, Dattu had arrived from the Asian Championships and he had some backache and he was not healing so there was a talk of sending him off - back to his unit, I saw him row on my first day and said to myself that he was special, he was moving the boat properly, then I asked for his past and also asked for his medical records and then sent his records to US, got them checked and then I said I will fix him."

Dattu now feels that it was his father who should be given the credit for developing his body and his muscles. He feels that if he hadn't done the work of breaking stones along with his father, his muscles wouldn't have been so perfectly developed with the help of which he can tirelessly row his boat now. Dattu has been training with his American coach for more than a year now. He is now working on increasing his speed. The time he wants to achieve is 2 kms in 7 minutes.



Dattu is leaving no stone unturned in his training. The focus now is to increase his rowing speed, and the amount of consistent hard work put in by Dattu, his coach Paul feels that Dattu might spring up a surprise at the Rio Games.

Dattu was fortunate that his American coach believed in him. And the rest they say is history. Dattu delivered what his coach was expecting from him. Dattu also got an opportunity to take part in the FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic Qualification Regatta at Chung-Ju in South Korea. In South Korea, Dattu clocked 7 minutes and 7.63 seconds which helped him win a silver medal in the men's single sculls event, helped him qualify for the Rio Olympics.

Dattu Bhokanal is the ninth Indian to represent the country at the Olympics in rowing. His present coach feels that this boy has tremendous potential and his continuous hard work may give him an edge over others and he might even spring a surpise. After his training at the Army Rowing Node, Dattu went to Miami for advanced training along with his coach and his motto was to get acclamatized to the weather conditions.