Man who gave India PT Usha dies

KOZHIKODE: Renowned athletics coach OM Nambiar, who nurtured one of India’s greatest track and field stars PT Usha, died here on Thursday due to age related illness. He was 89. Nambiar is survived by his wife Leela, three sons and a daughter. He breathed his last at his residence in Vadakara, a coastal own in Kozhikode district.

One of the first Dronacharya Award winners and this year’s Padma Shri awardee was hospitalised around a week ago, after which he was brought back home. Usha said Nambiar, who was battling Parkinson’s disease, had a heart attack 10 days ago. She termed it a huge personal loss.

“It’s a huge loss for me. He was a father figure to me and my achievements would not have been there if he was not there. I met him only last week after Neeraj (Chopra) won gold in Olympics. He could understand what I was telling him but he could not speak,” Usha said.

A former Air Force man, Nambiar has turned several young talent into international athletes during his tenure as a renowned coach, including the legendary Usha, who missed bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics by one hundredth of a second.

Usha had maintained close ties with her coach and visited him last week to inform him about javelin thrower Chopra’s historic gold in Tokyo. Besides Usha, some of the athletes he coached include four-time Olympian Shiny Wilson and Vandana Rao.

Born in Kannur in 1932, Nambiar was a fine athlete during his college days at Guruvayurappan College in Kozhikode.