However, Montreal was surely his finest hour, though he failed to win a medal. That Sriram was a medal prospect was evident when he won a practice meet in Montreal days before the start of the Games. Most leading runners had participated in this meet and Sriram gained valuable confidence from his performance. This was on show when, running in the first lane of the opening heat in Montreal, he set a scorching pace to lead the field at the end of the first lap with a timing of 51.35 seconds. He continued with the good run for the next 300 metres before the American Rick Wohlhuter, favourite to win gold in Montreal, overtook him. While the American finished first in this heat with a timing of 1 minute 45.7 seconds, Sriram with a career-best of 1 minute 45.80 seconds was second.
He ran a strategically bad semi-final and was in fact very close to missing out on a final berth, allowing competitors from America, Britain and Cuba to stay ahead of him. Allowing himself to be boxed, which a front runner like him never relished, Sriram had to stay content in the fourth position, but with only five metres for the finish, James Robinson from the United States put in a tremendous burst all but overtaking the Indian.
After finishing sixth in the London Games in 1948, when he first became aware of how different international wrestling rules were, KD Jadhav ascended the podium in Helsinki in 1952. Sadly, few recall or celebrate his feat.@BoriaMajumdar ✍️#Olympics https://t.co/PdVQFPyk6l
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) July 16, 2024
The race was reported thus:
“Indian observers waited with bated breath for the result for to the naked eye it seemed the American, a world class runner, had just about made it but the wonderful world of electronics which leaves nothing to chance put the Indian a hundredth of a second or so ahead. There was a burst of cheering in the Indian camp when the result was flashed on the giant board. None looked more delighted than Sriram’s mentor Ilyas Babar.”
In the final, as in the heat, Sriram set a blistering pace and led the field in the first 400 metres with an amazing time of 50.85 seconds, faster than the eventual gold medal winner Alberto Juantorena of Cuba. It was in the home stretch that he faded away and ultimately finished seventh with a timing of 1 minute 45.77 seconds. Juantorena, El Caballo [The Horse], who won gold with a world record of 1 minute 43.50 seconds, attributed his success to the pace set by Sriram.
This effort by Sriram, hardly celebrated in the annals of Indian sport, was a testament to his talent and grit. He was a world-class athlete, who with support and adequate funding could have easily gone on to win an Olympic medal.