: When Nehru declared a national holiday for Milkha and a Rhodes Scholar who struck gold #IndiaNEWS #Sports New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) Two men the Flying Sikh Milkha Singh and heavyweight freestyle

When Nehru declared a national holiday for Milkha and a Rhodes Scholar who struck gold #IndiaNEWS #Sports
New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) Two men the Flying Sikh Milkha Singh and heavyweight freestyle wrestler Lila Ram broke Indias medal drought in what were then known as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, in 1958.
A little over a month before his date with history, Milkha Singh had ended at the top of the podium in the 200m and 400m races at the Tokyo Asian Games, but competing against the sturdy athletes of England, Wales, Scotland, Australia and South Africa, and from the then rising track and field superpowers Uganda, Kenya and Jamaica appeared to be an insurmountable challenge.
When Singh surprised the world by making it to the final six in the 440 yards event (metric units hadnt yet been introduced in the Games, hence the measurement in yards), the teams American Methodist missionary-turned-athletics coach, Dr Arthur Howard, asked the young athlete to just focus on winning and not even think about the South African favourite, Malcolm Spence.
Singh heeded Howards advice, clocked 46. 6 seconds (thus setting a new national record) and beat Spence, who had taken a sizable early lead, by 0. 3 seconds on July 24, 1958, at the packed Cardiff Arms Park. The nation was overjoyed and the Flying Sikh received a rousing reception on his return.
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru joined the national celebrations and, on Singhs request, declared the next day a national holiday!
Unlike Singh, Lila Ram may not ring a bell today, but the man who perfected his wrestling moves at the Grenadiers Regimental Centre, which was then based out of Nasirabad, Rajasthan, became the second wrestler, the first being the bronze medallist Rashid Anwar in 1934, to return home with a medal that too gold from the British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
Lila Ram, who had earlier captained the Indian wrestling team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, spent the rest of his life as chief coach of both the national and the Services team before retiring from the Haryana Government as Assistant Director (Sports) in 1988. Ten years later, in 1998, he was awarded the Padma Shri, an honour conferred upon Milkha Singh much earlier in 1959.
Indian women had to wait for another 40 years after Milkha Singh to win their first gold and the honour was earned by Roopa Unnikrishnan, a Madras Christian College, Chennai, graduate who went on to Oxford (Balliol College and then to the Said School of Business) on a Rhodes Scholarship. She even got a coveted Blue, a rare honour for a shooter at the hallowed university.
At the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, Unnikrishnan settled for silver in the womens 50m small-bore rifle three positions event and also claimed a bronze in the team event with Kuheli Gangulee.

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