Marathon boy, four, runs into storm of exploitation claims
摘要:一位被母亲以不到20美元价格出售的四岁男童周二一口气跑完65公里(40英里)，但这位“马拉松神童”的教练却遭到指控，人们认为他是在拿孩子的健康赚钱。
穿白上衣红短裤的神童布提亚(Budhia Singh)仅用七个小时零两分钟就跑完了全程，此前他刚缔造印度年龄最小跑完马拉松全程的纪录。
在昨天的跑步过程中，数家印度电视台进行了追踪报导。三百名警察在神童周围执行警戒，地方高官更是在终点处接见了他。
但是，有人担心公众的过度追捧和利益的引诱将对小男孩不利。
奥里萨邦国立儿童福利委员会指责教练为个人利益拼命逼神童训练，而不顾他的健康。
但布提亚说他很喜欢不停地跑。“我每天训练十个小时，但并不觉得辛苦，我喜欢跑步，”他说。
For his armies of cheering fans in India's slums(在印度贫民窟中众多兴奋的仰慕者看来), he is a small but nimble miracle, destined to run his way into history as one of the world's greatest athletes.
Budhia Singh, a four-year-old urchin, can complete a 26-mile marathon faster than many runners who are twice his height and many times his age.
But just as fame and fortune beckon - and a trip to Britain to star in a television documentary(电视记录片) - doctors who have examined the child phenomenon have laid down an early finishing line to his career(提前为其运动生涯划上了句号).
Alarmed at television footage of him collapsing in the final stages of a record-breaking 43-mile run, Indian health officials ordered police to take him into hospital on Friday for tests to see if the intense exercise was damaging his young body.
Results delivered yesterday confirmed those fears - with doctors warning that he will soon be a physical wreck.
"Making a child this age run marathons on a regular basis will lead to him being physically burnt out in a few years", said Dr Manabendra Bhattacharya of the Sports Authority of India, who discovered that Budhia had abnormally high pulse and blood pressure readings. "It's not desirable to submit such a young body to so much stress and strain. Those who think they're doing the child a service by promoting him to run such long distances are causing him terrible damage."
Budhia - hailed as the world's youngest marathon runner, although he has no birth certificate to prove his age - is now the subject of a legal wrangle between the state authorities and his coach, who stands accused of exploiting and maltreating the boy.
The controversy is being played out amid huge media interest in the boy's story, a tale of rags to riches that has transfixed the Indian public. The son of an illiterate dishwasher mother and an alcoholic beggar father, Budhia was sold for 800 rupees (£10) to a street hawker after his father died three years ago. liuxuepaper.com