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Warangal has a Dronacharya now
Long ago Warangal had an Arjuna awardee in J Pichaiah, the yesteryears’ national hero of ball badminton. And after 46 years, the city has produced a Dronacharya, an honour for excellence in sports coaching, in Nagapuri Ramesh.
Nagapuri Ramesh brings glory to State
Warangal: Long ago Warangal had an Arjuna awardee in J Pichaiah, the yesteryears’ national hero of ball badminton. And after 46 years, the city has produced a Dronacharya, an honour for excellence in sports coaching, in Nagapuri Ramesh. It may be noted here that Union Sports Ministry has conferred Dronacharya award to Ramesh recognising his coaching skills in athletics.
Albeit the entire nation’s focus was on PV Sindhu, who won the Silver medal in badminton, at least a few would have noticed that Ramesh is the coach of Dutee Chand, who became the first Indian woman to compete in the 100m event at the Rio Olympics in 36 years and the second ever, after PT Usha (in 1980).
Though his passion for athletics earned him a name at the State and national level, Ramesh, who once worked with Kakatiya High School in Subedari here as a physical education teacher, never planned his career so that he would become a national coach one day.
In his words, “Took my life as it came”, Ramesh told The Hans India, thanking E Sridevi, the head of the school in which he worked, his coach Y Ramakrishna, seniors R Pradeep Reddy and K Sarangapani for extending their support on his way to success.
After completing his graduation in Arts and Science College in 1987, he went to Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu to pursue M P Ed at the behest of his friend Guru Prasad. Later, when he was working as a PET in Kakatiya school, his colleagues who identified his coaching skills encouraged him to get a diploma course in sports coaching from the National Institute of Coaching in Bengaluru.
It changed Ramesh’s life as he got a direct recruitment in the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Hyderabad for topping the diploma course in 1991. The next few years were fruitful for him as he produced some excellent athletes like M Madhavi, long jump winner at Junior Asian Championship in Delhi in 1996. With this he got elevated to national level coach. He coached Sathi Geetha, Mrudula, Soujanya and Mounika who represented and performed well in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 Asian games in 4X400meter relay.
During 1999-2000, Ramesh was fitness trainer for the India hockey team which had greats like Mukesh Kumar and Dhanraj Pillai. He donned the mantle of personal fitness trainer for cricketer VVS Laxman when the latter scored an epic 281 in Kolkata helping India pull off a memorable come-from-behind victory against Australia. Deccan Chargers appointed him their fitness coach in the first edition of IPL.
He will receive the award from President Pranab Mukherjee on August 29. Dronacharya awardees will get statuettes, certificates and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. Incidentally, Ramesh is the first sports coach to get Dronacharya Award in Telangana after the AP bifurcation. Badminton Association of Telangana joint secretary Prof P Ramesh Reddy said: “Ramesh would have got the award long ago. His hard work and perseverance paid off dividends, finally, like the popular saying goes better late than never.”
By Adepu Mahender
