Former national kabaddi player Uday Chowta passes away

Uday Chowta, former member of the Indian kabaddi team and the first kabaddi player from Dakshina Kannada district to receive the Ekalavya award, passed away in the wee hours on Saturday.

In a sports career spanning two decades, Uday had played in over 100 national and 300 state level Kabaddi tournaments. Uday, a resident of Badigudda near Mani in Bantwal taluk completed his schooling in Mani higher primary school and PUC at Government PU college in Puttur. He obtained his degree from Philomena college in Puttur.

Since his college days, he was active in sports including kabaddi and volleyball. Uday who begun representing Philomena college in inter-college kabaddi tournaments went onto represent Mangalore University in inter-university kabaddi tournaments. He had represented Karnataka in the junior national kabaddi tournament in 1993.

He was member of the Indian kabaddi team from 2000 to 2008. In 2004, Uday had won five gold medals in the Test Kabaddi match between India and Bangladesh. In 2007 Kabaddi World Cup, India had defeated Iran 29-19. Uday's stellar performance on court won him the best player award.

Uday, an inspiration for youth, had served as Organising secretary of Dakshina Kannada Amateur Kabaddi Association. Uday had served in Air India, KPTCL and was presently serving in the Suratkal branch of Bank of Baroda. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.