KOCHI: Despite being a sportsperson all his life, OM Nambiar could never realise his ambition of representing the country at the international level. But he lived his dream by producing one of India’s all-time great athletes, PT Usha.
The Usha-Nambiar partnership that produced several golden moments in Indian athletics and stood the test of time came to an end on Thursday evening with the passing away of Usha’s beloved coach. Nambiar breathed his last at his residence in Maniyoor near Vatakara in Kozhikode district. He was 89.
Nambiar was battling age-related ailments for quite some time and was suffering from loss of memory due to Parkinson’s. Usha had visited him a day after Neeraj Chopra had won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics to inform him that an Indian athlete had accomplished what she couldn’t 37 summers ago at the Los Angeles Olympics.
“I am at a loss of words. I have lost a father figure who guided me all my life,” a sobbing PT Usha mumbled while on her way to Nambiar’s residence.
One of the first recipients of the Dronacharya Award in 1985, Nambiar sir, as he was fondly called, was bestowed with the Padma Shri earlier this year.
A champion athlete during his college days, Nambiar joined the Indian Air Force to pursue his athletics career. Though he won several medals for the Services, he couldn’t reach the next level and turned to coaching soon after hanging his boots.
After completing his coaching diploma at NIS, Patiala, Nambiar took charge as coach of Kerala State Sports Council in 1970 after a brief stint with the Services. The decision proved to be a game-changing moment in not just Nambiar’s life but Usha’s career too.
Six years later, Nambiar hand-picked a tall, lean girl from Payyoli at an athletics selection trial held in Thiruvananthapuram. It was the beginning of an association that would change the face of Indian track and field. For the next four years, Usha made rewriting records at the national level a habit.
Usha was in the national squad soon but missed out on a gold medal at the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi and had to be content with two silver medals (100m and 200m). The near-miss prompted Nambiar to switch Usha to the 400m hurdles, an event that was making its maiden entry in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in the women’s category.
Nambiar believed that Usha could land herself a medal in this event and it almost proved to be true till she was edged out for the bronze by Romanian Cristiena Cojocaru by 1/100th of a second. Not just Usha and her coach, the whole country was crestfallen. And till his death, Nambiar believed that if it wasn’t for a foul start by an Australian athlete, Usha would have been on the podium in Los Angeles. “I fell on the track disappointed when the photo-finish showed that my girl was fourth. Usha was tensed for the restart. She didn’t start well. And that cost her,” Nambiar had said.
Usha went on to win four gold medals and a silver at the next Asian Games in Seoul in 1986 and there was a clamour from eminent athletes to send her abroad for training. But Usha stayed under Nambiar’s tutelage till she quit.
While Indian athletics owes a lot to Usha, Usha owes a lot to Nambiar and if it wasn’t for his eye for talent, the country wouldn’t have witnessed the emergence of the ‘golden girl’ of Indian athletics.
