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On 26 February 2021 Muhammed Hanan, a 17 years old guy from Kerala made a record. He won the gold medal in the 110m hurdles in South Zone Junior Athletics Championship. He took part in the under-18 category male and ranked himself as World's number 3 at Calicut University Stadium.
If we want an example of the term "hard work brings success" then Muhammed Hanan can be an ideal choice. This 17 years old from has Malappuram suddenly become the talk of the town by clocking the third-best timing in the latest rankings released by World Athletics. In this list, South African athletes took the first two positions while German and Jamaican athletes got the 4th and 5th spots. Apart from Hanan, Sarthak Sadashiv and Shubam Singh got the 37th and 52nd spots from India.
He won the gold medal in the 110m hurdles in South Zone Junior Athletics Championship. He took part in the under-18 category male and ranked himself as World's number 3 at Calicut University Stadium.
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At present, he is the third-best and the reason behind this achievement is sheer hard work, nothing else. The most remarkable thing about this young lad is he hardly has any training on the synthetic track. His training tracks are mostly the tiled footpath and the alleyways near his modest house in Tanur. In January, he participated in the National junior meet held in Guwahati and became a champion. Sometimes he also does his training on the nearby beach. He genuinely puts in his every possible effort while he trains himself to become the best.
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Recently Muhammed Hanan talked about his dreams in an interview. He said that "It's Ramadan. So I get more time to sleep and I was dreaming of competing in the Olympics. The feeling is yet to sink and I can hardly believe that I'm in the top three of World rankings." His next target is to glorify his country's name in the Olympics.
An Indian athlete taking the World No. 3 spot is a rare and proud moment for all the countrymen. On this celestial achievement of Hannan, a renowned athletics statistician Ram Muralikrishnan said that "For Hanan, it is not a small feat. If he maintains the ranking or better the position then it will be really big. These are early days of the season but one cannot deny him the credit for reaching World No.3 even if it is for some time."
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Hanan is the third child of Kareem V and Noorjehan. Hanan's father is a house driver in Abu Dhabi and his mother is a homemaker. His two elder brothers are also in the field of athletics. Hanan's elder brother Muhammed Harshad was a former 400m hurdler. Harshad was a state champion and currently perusing MPeD from MG University, Kottayam. Hannan is being trained by Harshad regularly. While talking about Hanan, he said that "I really hope that Hanan will make it and bring India an Olympic medal. With this kind of ranking now I'm sure he will make it to the Olympic podium if he is directed and supported well."
Muhammed Ashik, Hanan's second elder brother is a 110m Hudler. He also won many medals in state meets. Hanan and Ashik do their training together at their locality with some other boys regularly.
Hanan studies in standard 12 at Devadhar Govt. Higher Secondary School in Tanur. Recently he got an offer of a job at the Madras Regimental Centre, Wellington. He wants to join as a 'Havildar' once he clears his board exam. Though the state board exam has been postponed due to the second wave of Covid-19, still he doesn't lose his hope. After getting the job offer he said that "At 18, a job with MRC will surely help me secure my fledgling athletics career."
Hanan is a wonder boy with so many talents. He got his achievement by overcoming all the hurdles as same as he does in the tracks. We can hope that someday this guy will bring a gold medal from the Olympics and carved his name with golden letters in the history of World athletics.