Race walking coach Gandhi passes away

 National race walking coach Ramakrishnan Gandhi passed away here on Sunday morning due to a cardiac arrest.

The 54-year-old Gandhi, a coach at the Sports Authority of India, had trained a clutch of walkers to success in international meets, including Asia race walking champion in the 20 km event, Gurmeet Singh.

Hailing from Vellore in Tamil Nadu, Gandhi was a long distance runner and also a steeplechaser, before he moved to coaching scene after taking a NIS diploma.

Though he was associated more with academics at SAI, Gandhi was the force behind guiding Gurmeet towards realising his potential. Many other walkers too followed in his wake, winning laurels for the country and earning qualifying spots at the Olympic Games in London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Always enthusiastic, Gandhi’s demise cast a pall of gloom over the walkers’ training camp at SAI. K T Irfan, the tenth-place finisher in the 20KM walk at the 2012 London Olympics, had started training under Gandhi three months back.

“We were shocked to hear the news. Even yesterday, he was with us at training and he was in good mood; really sad about it,” said Irfan.

Gurmeet, who became the first Indian to win the Asian 20km race walk title in March this year, too was disconsolate about the passing away of the man who had guided him towards success.Gandhi is survived by his wife and a daughter and a son.