He inched towards a century with a difference! Well, the renowned ball badminton player and Arjuna awardee, J. Pitchiah, from Warangal celebrated his 99th birthday with his family members and officials from the sport at his hometown in Warangal on Friday.
In a welcome gesture, it was another old-timer, K. Ranga Rao of Hindupur, who organised the “touching function” to a living legend of ball badminton. Also present was K. Vijay Prasad Reddy of Ball Badminton Federation of India.
It may be recalled here that Pitchiah started his sporting career in 1932 winning many singles titles across India beating some of the best names then. He also formed a formidable combination with Kareem to have an almost unbeaten record for close to a decade at the national level from 1944.
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He won the national championship nine times and was runner-up thrice. He also has the unique distinction of scripting a hat-trick of National titles for Hyderabad and also for Andhra State separately.
Speaking on the occasion, Vijay Prasad Reddy reminded that Pitchiah, who played his last Nationals in 1970 at the age of 53, was given the NTR Award for the Best Sportsperson and also the Arjuna Award later.
Some of the old-timers present on the occasion including Veeriah, Ramesh Reddy, Ravi, Jayachander gave an insight of what made Pitchiah such a classy customer on the court.
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The family members thanked the organisers for the “wonderful gesture”.
For his part, Pitchiah expressed gratitude for remembering his contribution to the sport and hoped that it would regain its pristine glory of the yesteryears.