BENGALURU: The historic Lalbagh was one of his favourite spots in the city and he routinely took his wards there for training. On Tuesday,
N Lingappa
, 95, one of India's oldest and most successful coaches in
athletics
, was laid to rest a stone's throw from the garden in the presence of hundreds of mourners.
The nonagenarian, who was honoured with the prestigious
Dronacharya award
in 2014, died at his residence after a brief illness.
"He suffered a stroke two weeks back but he was discharged about 10 days back. He passed away on this morning," L Nagaraj, Lingappa's son told TOI. A regular at the Sree Kanteerava stadium for the last six decades, the veteran coach groomed and passed on his experience to help athletes of all age groups — from those preparing for Masters meets to children warming up for school events.
Lingappa is survived by two sons including Nagaraj, a former state and ITI basketball player, and three daughters. His wife S Lakshmamma passed away a few years back.
Till recently, Lingappa used to ride nearly 30km on his scooter to train chidren free of cost at the Kanteerava.
"When they win medals, I'm happy," Lingappa used to say. Among his famous wards were
Arjuna award winners Ashwini Nachappa and Vandana Rao, Dhyanchand award winner Uday K Prabhu, internationals David Premnath, DY Biradhar, PC Ponnappa, KN Sundara Raja Shetty, AP Ramaswamy, KC Shankar, Robin Paul, Satish Pillai and Umadevi.
Lingappa studied at the United Mission High School and SLN High School before joining Central College as an employee in 1946.
After winning medals in the state as a race walker, he completed the Rajkumari Amrit Kaur coaching scheme. Though he was selected to be part of the Indian contingent for the second Asian Games in Manila in 1954, Lingappa made his name as a coach as Karnataka produced a crop of top class athletes across disciplines.
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