Shankar Nag, a renowned and versatile sports personality of his time and now a coach and source of inspiration for wannabe volleyball players, was humbly telling me about his 6'2.5'' high jump record made in 1959-60 ( achieved twice, in district level and then state level meet) by defeating the record of 6’1’’ by none other than his own grandmaster, Kamal Chatterjee (who also belonged to Shyamnagar and we intend to write a story on him soon). You may be surprised to know that his state level record on high jump lasted for a phenomenal 24 years.
After a stint of prominent success in athletics, when his physique couldn’t allow him to jump any longer, he decided to shift to an alternative sports - volleyball, for which the grooming had already begun side by side his athletics training in the grounds of Shyamngar under the supervision of Kamal Chatterjee, and then he went on to play for the national team for 6 years in a row. When I asked to see his national gold medal that he received from the then president Mr Sararvepalli Radhakrishnan from a national meet in Delhi in the year 1960, he gleefully obliged. As I held the once shining gold, now tarnished with age, in my hands, I felt I touched history.
Sadly, he does lament on Government initiatives for promoting real talents, lack of equipments and that remains a face of ugly truth. This is an amazing experience and I am glad to be a part of this initiative.While we are working to publish more details on him, you can have a look at his photos on our online gallery.
Shankar Nag, a set on Flickr.
ছেলেবেলায় - তা প্রায় ৬০/৬২ বছর আগে তখন আড়িয়াদহ অঞ্চলে থাকতাম, শ্যাম নগরে 'যুগের প্রতীক' নামে ফুটবল দলে কথা বেশ মনে আছে । খেলা দেখতাম। পরবর্তী সময়ে 'যুগের পতীক' থেকেই অনেক বিখ্যাত ফুটবল খেলোয়ার কলকাতার মাঠ কাঁপিয়েছেন । 'যুগের প্রতীক' ক্লাবটি কি এখনো আগে মত আহে ? জানার খুব আগ্রহ । একটি অঞ্চলে সংস্কৃতিকে তুলে ধরার জন্য এই রকম ব্লগ নির্মাণ আভিনন্দন যোগ্য ।
উত্তরমুছুন