Former athlete Desouza passes away

Chennai, Sep 21 (UNI) Well known athlete and former coach A J Desouza died here this morning following a brief illness, according to his family sources.

He was 67 and is survived by his two sisters.

Mr Desouza's services for the development of athletics and the sport itself is well known.

He groomed several talented athletes from Tamil Nadu, some of whom brought laurels to the state and the nation, like S Balasubramaniam, a tripple jumper, who represented India at the Asian level.

Yasim Akbar, who represented India in the World University Games, Erol Heart (decathlete) and former all India Inter-University Champion and Meena Gopal (heptathlete) were some of his products.

Mr Desouza, who found the Don Bosco Athletic Club in 1964, was himself a state-level athlete in heptathlon, hurdles, sprints and triple jump.

Mr Desouza had also authored well known books on technical aspects and training methods in athletics.

Some of his popular books were, 'Romancing Decathlon', 'Track and Field Sites', 'Hand Book Of Professional Sports Management' and ' Total Fitness For High Performance Sports'.

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