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Table Tennis

Indian table tennis legend Venugopal Chandrasekhar passes away

Former table tennis champion and coach Venugopal Chandrasekhar passed away on Wednesday in Chennai.

Venugopal Chandrasekhar (Source: The Indian Express)
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Venugopal Chandrasekhar (Source: The Indian Express)

By

The Bridge Desk

Updated: 12 May 2021 11:41 AM GMT

Veteran table tennis player and coach Venugopal Chandrasekhar passed away on Wednesday in Chennai. Popularly known as 'Chandra', he died at the age of 63.

Chandra was one of the most popular paddlers of his time who won three national championships. He was a semi-finalist at the Commonwealth Games an, Arjuna Award winner. Besides he also had a gold medal both in BA Economics and Law - a good career was in front of him.
During the 1980s, table tennis was slowly gaining popularity and attracting sponsors. Chandra was one of the best and attractive players. He was a fighter and a risk taker. Even in the crucial stages of a game, Chandra would take risks that would unsettle the opponents and he would bag the match.
But fate had something else in store for him. Chandra, who went into Apollo Hospital for a minor knee operation, lost his speech, vision, and mobility - and came out like a vegetable. From then on it was a fight for survival. But that did not deter his spirit and he continued to serve the game as a coach.
He started his academy and ran it in at several places. Chandra decided to focus on training upcoming players and began coaching classes, first at the YMCA and then at the D.G. Vaishnav College and the SBOA School. Finally, he set up his own SDAT Medimix Chandra TT Coaching Centre. It was his center that produced players like G Sathiyan, RS Raja to V Srinivasan.




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