T.C. Yohannan’s long jump gold at 1974 Tehran Asian Games
On September 12, 1974, in Tehran, T.C. Yohannan, the country’s long jump champion at the time, broke his own Asian Games record with a stunning leap of 8.07 metres, winning the gold medal.
Yohannan fell into a canal as a little child while trying to cross it one day near his home in Marranad, Kollam. He cleaned up the mess when he got home, but his father wasn’t pleased. He brought his son back to the canal and promised him a modest prize—a glass of lemon juice—if he could leap over it. He did. Yohannan’s fascination with the jumps started in this way.
Around 19 years later, he relocated to Bhilai to live with his brothers and pursue his mechanical engineering studies. His life was altered by that choice. The lanky Kerala teenager received numerous employment offers after winning the long jump and triple jump gold medals at the Prasanna Kumar All-India Meet in Bangalore, including ones from Telco, Tisco, and Railways.
‘I decided to join Telco on the advice of my brother. The best choice I’ve ever made in my life was that one. Telco helped me at every stage of my profession and dramatically changed my life. I don’t believe any of those amazing things would have occurred if I had remained in Kerala,’ Yohannan says.
Telco at the time had a large number of elite athletes, including intelligent young men like Reghunathan and Suresh Babu. Furthermore, the Tata Sports Meet, which took place in Bombay at the time, was a significant event. He recalls, ‘We enjoyed this meet since it offered us an opportunity to see Bombay.’
‘Top Indian athletes today are developed with the help of foreign coaches and scientific research. Yohannan, though, had moulding that was practically unpolished. Although Suresh Gujrati, our Telco’s sports coach, lacked coaching credentials, he was incredibly inventive with his methods and devoted to his job.’
‘Long jumpers benefit from gaining good height throughout the flying phase. Gujrati used to act in an odd way. To help us fly high, he maintained the hurdles low as we got closer to the runway’s end. That, I believe, really improved my performance.’
‘At the conclusion of the jump, I used to throw my hip forward.’ Yohannan reveals as he displays the photo sequence of his gold medal jump, ‘That gave me almost an extra foot. For thirty years, that leap stood as the Indian record and shattered the Asian mark.’
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