Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

with the team comprising M. Salem, S.M. Jacob, L.S. Deane and A.A. Fayzee. In the Asian Games at Bangkok, the Indian pair of V.Dhawan and S.P. Mishra won a bronze medal. This was repeated by Shyam Minotra and Chiradip Mukherjea in the 1978 Asiad again at Bangkok. Sumant Mishra emerged as the first National Champion defeating Manmohan in 1946 at Calcutta, where the event was inaugurated. Zeeshan Ali at 16 in 1987 became the youngest player to win the National Championship. Arjuna Awards: Ramanathan Krishnan, Naresh Kumar, Mankad, Premjit Lai, Jaideep Mukherjea,Vijay Amrithraj, Nirupama, Ra- mesh Krishnan, Anand Amrithraj and Leandar Paes. It has been the constant endeavor of man- kind to evolve higher levels of sporting chal- lenge. Out of this quest has evolved the new sport of triathlon, comprising sea swimming, cycling, and running. A relatively new sport, triathlon took an organised form in India with the formation of the Indian Triathlon Federa- tion and the conduct of the first national triathlon championships on 23rd and 24th February, 1991 in Madras. In this short span of three years, the Indian triathletes, espe- cially the girls, have done the country proud. V.T. Anusuya of Karnataka became the first Indian to win an international medal by claiming the bronze in the under 20 category of the first Asian tri- athlon championships held in Japan on 4th October, 1992. C.Amudha of Tamil Nadu has gone one step better by winning the gold in the second Asian triathlon championships held in July, 1993 in China. Affiliated to the International Triathlon Union, the Indian Tri- athlon Federation, headed by Mr.N.Ramachandran as president and Mr.Rakesh Gupta as secretary since inception, has been regularly holding the national championships on an annual basis. Events are held under sub-junior, junior (boys and girls) and senior (men and women) categories. The events are held for both indi- viduals and teams. While events under all categories were con- ducted simultaneously in the first two years, in the third year, the national sub-junior and junior championships were held at Kurukshetra on 22nd October 1992 and the senior national champi- onship held at Madras on 14th March, 1993. A three-member Indian women’s team comprising V.T. Anu- suya (Karnataka), Archana Patel (Gujarat) and Khushanaaz A. Subedar (Maharashtra) with Mr.N. Ramachandran as the head of the delegation participated in the 1992 world triathlon champion- ships held at Muskoka, Canada on 12th September, 1992. Earlier an Indian team comprising S. Karunakaran, Anusuya and Famaz Engineer had participated in the World Triathlon championships held at Gold Coast, Australia on 13th October, 1991. Indian triathlon officials have also been regularly attending the meetings of the Asian Triathlon Confederation and the Interna- tional Triathlon Union Congress. In the fifth International Triathlon Union Congress held at Muskoka, Canada on 9th and 10th Septem- ber, 1992, Mr. Ramachandran was elected to the information com- mittee of the international federation. Distances covered in kms for three events under the various categories: TRIATHLON

Sea Swimming

Cycling

Running

Sub-junior

0.5

6.0

5.0

Junior

1.0

20.0

5.0

Senior

1.5

40.0

10.0

VOLLEYBALL

Introduced as mintonette, a recreational sport for businessmen, by W.G. Morgan, Physical Director, Springfield College of Physical Education, Holyoke, Massachusetts, volleyball developed as a sport only during the First World War. Developed as an indoor sport, the game did not immediately catch the

imagination of the American masses. Thanks to the efforts of the YMCA movement, the game spread to different countries and rap- idly became popular in Eastern Europe, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and many other nations. Deriving the name from the fact that the players volley the ball across the net, the game became a popular recreational sport among soldiers during the First and Second World Wars. The International Volleyball Federation (now known as the FIVB, Federation of International Volleyball) was formed on 20th April 1947 by 14 nations to make volleyball popular as an international sport. Mr. Paul Libard of France was the first presi- dent and the first world championships were held in 1949 at Prague, capital of erstwhile Czechoslovakia. Volleyball was brought to India in the 1920s, as an exciting, highly competitive team sport, wherein each player dominates in his own court without bodily contact to create a difficult situation for the opponents, by J.H. Gray of the YMCA. Though volleyball, like basketball, was devised as an indoor sport by the Americans, in India it became a very popular outdoor activity. The low cost of the game also made it adaptable in rural settings. Efforts were made in the 1950s to make the game an organised competitive sport in the country. The game, in fact, caught on in the coastal areas and especially in the harbours, where it was played by the seamen in the shipyards. The efforts of the dedicated to streamline the sport bore fruit in the formation of the Volleyball Federation of India with Mr. F.C. Arora as the first president and Mr. Basu as the general secretary in the 1950s. The first international exposure was the participation of an Indian team in the world championships at Moscow in 1952. The first national championship was held in 1952 and Mysore won the title defeating Pepsu in the final. Women also soon took to the game and the women’s event also became a part of the national championship programme. The women made their international debut at the 1979 Asian championships in Hong Kong. The Volleyball Federation of India has now introduced the junior and sub-junior national championships for boys and girls. Volleyball, which became a part of the Asian Games movement in 1958 at Tokyo, was introduced in the Olympics in 1964 at Tokyo. India, which won a gold medal in the men’s event of the Asian volleyball championships in Tokyo in 1955, also won a bronze medal in men’s event of the 1958 Asian Games and silver in the 1962 Jakarta Asiad, again in the men’s event. In the 1982 Asiad Indian men finished fourth and in the next Asiad-1986 at Seoul - went one rung up the ladder by winning the bronze. In fact, it was during the 1980s, when Mr. Sivanti Adityan was the president of the VFI and Mr. K. Murugan the Secretary, that the