Suresh Babu
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Suresh Babu has held the national title in the long, triple and high jump events, in addition to the decathlon. He has is one of the few athletes to win medals in two events in successive Asian Games, the bronze in the decathlon in the Teheran edition of 1974 and a gold in the long jump of the Bangkok edition of l978.
Suresh Babu dominated the scene between 1972 and 1979, holding national titles in the jumps and decathlon and at the same time picking his event for laurels on the international arena.
Born in Quilon in Kerala on 10 February 1953, Suresh Babu was a science graduate who came good in athletics. The foundation for his athletics career was laid in the Infant Jesus High School and the Fatima Mata College in Quilon. His first fling at the national level -was as a junior at Jalandhar in 1969. Three years later he won the national championship in high jump, a title he was to claim for six more years. Switching from one pit to another, he won the national championship in long jump during the years 1974, 1977 and 1979 and the triple jump in 1974,1976 and 1978. In between he strayed over to the ten card event of decathlon and imposed himself on the national scene in the championships held in 1974,1975 and 1978.
The Munich Olympics of 1972 was his first experience of international athletics but he had to wait for the Teheran Asian Games in 1974 for his first medal. This was a Bronze in the decathlon, a medal enriched to Gold in the Asian Championships at Seoul the following year. In between he captained the Indian Universities athletics team to the World Universities Games at Moscow in 1973.
Suresh Babu led the Indian athletics team to the 1978 Commonwealth Games at Edmonton in Canada and concentrating on the long jump event fetched a Bronze there. He then went on to pick up the Gold at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok, His winning effort of 7.85 metres was far short of T.C. Yohannan's 8.07 metres of the earlier Games but he had maintained an Indian tradition with the Gold Medal. His next target was the 1979 Asian Athletics Meet in Tokyo where he picked up a Silver, During his seven years as an active athlete Suresh Babu also won medals for India at competitions in Ceylon, Lahore and the Philippines and was the captain of the Indian team for the World Athletics Meet at Montreal in 1979.
Awarded Arjuna Award in 1978-79 and presently employed as Sports Officer with Kerala Sports Council, Suresh Babu had earlier served as Special Officer, Sports and Games, in the Kerala State Electricity Board. He was a member of the Technical Committee of the All India Electricity Sports Control Board and a coach at the Sports Authority of India (Southern Centre) in Bangalore. He was the State Supervisor of SAI for Kerala and Lakshadweep.
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