Even as Mangala Stadium is preparing to welcome athletes for the 19th Federation Cup or National Senior Athletics Championship from April 30, Damodar Gowda cherishes the moments of the National Open Athletics Championship conducted in the same stadium 28 years ago. He had won the silver medal in the 800 m race. “Those were the days when there was no concept of a photo finish,” recalled Mr. Gowda, who finished the race together with A.D. Rajan from Services. “We both clocked 1 minute 52.3 seconds. The gold medal went to Rajan and the silver to me based on what the official said,” he said.
Mr. Gowda (45), who is now the district athletics coach, was in a strong team of athletes from the State that included Ashwini Nachappa, Vandana Rao, Reeth Abraham, S.D. Eeshan, K.M. Suresh and Anand Shetty.
Mr. Gowda, who then participated for Heavy Engineering Sports Board, and sprinter Anand Shetty were the two from undivided Dakshina Kannada to win medals.
Mr. Shetty, who died in an accident two years ago, won gold in the 100 metres and 200 metres races. Nearly 15 medals were won by the athletes from the State in 1987.
Mr. Gowda, who was then 27-year-old, says that the event then attracted many people. “It excited me to run as some 25,000 spectators cheered,” he says. Among the highlights of the event was Vandana Shanbhag, another local and legendary sprinter, who was then representing Maharashtra, defeating P.T. Usha in the 200 metres sprint. Such was the expectations of the audience for the event that spectators threw tomatoes and eggs at a local athlete as she was moving out of the track after being disqualified for not taking the run properly in a sprint, Mr. Gowda recalled.
Mr. Gowda, who has been training budding athletes, sees drastic change in the condition and facilities now available for athletes at the Stadium.
“We ran on mud tracks. The athletes now have synthetic tracks and facilities far better than what we had,” he said.
Mr. Gowda, who is the technical advisor for the Federation Cup Athletics tournament and overseeing facilities, said that the best of the facilities were being provided to athletes taking part in the five-day event. Just like 1987, Mr. Gowda hopes for a good performance by the State’s athletes.
Damodar Gowda was involved in a photo finish with gold medallist A.D. Rajan
Karnataka athletes won 15 medals
in the event in 1987
