T. C. Yohannan

Thadathuvila Chandapillai Yohannan (born 19 May 1947), better known as T. C. Yohannan, is a former Indian long jumper who held the national record in long jump for nearly 3 decades and represented India in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. He hails from the state of Kerala. Yohannan will be known for the new dimension he gave to long jump in India in 1974, the occasion was the Teheran Asian Games of 1974. Yohannan cleared a distance of 8.07 metres at the Teheran Asian Games for a new Asian record. That one leap, into history gave Yohannan a permanent place not only in the record books but in the annals of the Indian athletics. It was a performance rated at par with that of Milkha Singh's record breaking run in the Rome Olympics.

Early life

Born at Kundara village in Kollam district of Kerala on 19 May 1947, Yoahnnan had his early feel of athletics in the Inter-School Meets for Ezhukone Panchayat in 1964. He joined the public sector Bhilai Steel Plant, wherein he represented his Plant in the Steel Plants Sports Meet in 1969 and in the same year, had his first experience of athletics at the national level. He finished fourth in the long Jump and fifth in the triple jump. He progressed to the second spot in the long jump event of the Nationals in 1970 and then matured to set a national mark of 7.60 metres in Patiala in 1971.

Career

Selected to represent India in an international in Singapore, he won Gold Medals in...
Read More