BENGALURU:
Joginder Singh Saini
, one of India’s longest-serving
athletics
coaches who guided top athletes for nearly three decades, died in
Patiala
. He was 90.
Saini, who passed out of the National Institute of Sports (NIS) in the 1960s, emerged as one of the top coaches along with Kenneth Bosen, Jagmohan Singh, Francis and CM Muthiah. Old-timers recall that Saini was an integral part of the Indian team at major meets from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to the 1992 Games in Barcelona.
“He was the coach at the 1962 Asian Games camp in Bangalore and that was the first time I met him. He was the one who moulded the likes of Bogeshwar Barua (800m gold, 1966 Asiad) and Edward Sequiera (5000m silver, 1970 Asiad) and made them champion runners,” former athlete and 17-time national sprint champion Kenneth Powell said.
“The NIS started in 1961. He should be from the first batch with the likes of Bosen and Muthiah. He coached some of India’s top middle-distance runners,” recalled Powell, a 1964 Olympian with Milkha Singh.
Saini was named the chief coach of the then Amateur Athletics Federation of India in 1970.
‘AN INTELLECTUAL SPORTS TRAINER’Charles Borromeo, one of Saini’s top students who won the 800m gold at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, said the top coach got the best out of athletes in big meets.
“We call it intellectual sports training. Saini was the chief coach of the Indian team at the Delhi Asiad and he had the greatest knack to fine-tune an athlete for an international competition scheduled on a particular date. He was teaching at the NIS and at the same time worked as the national chief coach. In the '80s and '90s, we only had training and nothing else and he used to be the best in that,” Borromeo told TOI.
“He is the man who fine-tuned most of the middle- and long-distance runners and walkers. Walking was his pet event. His student Chand Ram won the 20km race-walk gold at the ’82 Asiad. He has been a wonderful mentor.
"During his days, the technical training and hard work was to the fore. He was a man who had multiple capabilities. He was an athletics coach, team man, organizer and managing officials. Saini was the man who connected North and South India. If there was one man who could connect best with South Indian athletes, it was Saini,” Borromeo said and added that it was Saini who fine-tuned the skills of Hari Chand, who won a 5000 and 10,000m double at the 1978 Asiad.
From Shivnath Singh to Gulab Chand to Bhadur Prasad, Saini was their mentor, and among women, the top names include Shiny Wilson and Kamaljeet Sandhu. In 1997, Saini was honoured with the Dronacharya award. A former athlete said it was Saini who motivated Gurbachan Singh Randhawa to take up decathlon and he won the Asian Games gold in 1962.
“I am truly saddened to hear of the passing away of our colleague, my chief coach and mentor, Mr. JS Saini,” AFI president Adille Sumariwalla said. “He loved athletics and contributed to Athletics Federation of India till his last day,” he added.
‘Saini Saab’, as he was fondly called by the
Indian athletics
fraternity, was involved with coaching until 2004 and became an AFI adviser thereafter.