Phadeppa Dareppa Chaugule a.k.a. P.D Chaugule (1902–1958) was

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

's first

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

runner. He represented India in the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (; Dutch language, Dutch and German language, German: ''Antwerpen 1920''), were an international multi-sport event held i ...

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, and finished 19th with a time of 2 hours 50 minutes 45.2 seconds. He hailed from the town of

Belgaum Belgaum (Kannada ISO 15919, ISO: ''Bēḷagāma'', ), officially known as Belagavi (also Belgaon), is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located near its northern western border in the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

Biography

He was born in 1902 or 1905 (no exact records available). His family had a business connected with printing press and agriculture land. PD Chaugule was educated in vernacular (Kannada) medium up to 6th grade and he belonged to

, Karnataka (then in Bombay Province). At the beginning of his career he enjoyed wrestling. He even took part in bouts in

Akhada Akhara or Akhada (Hindi: अखाड़ा, romanised: ''Akhāṛā'') is an Indian word for a place of practice with facilities for boarding, lodging and training, both in the context of Indian martial artists or a ''sampradaya'' monastery for ...

(arena), but he couldn't continue the sport after he injured his arm. So he started running. He was a strict vegetarian, which caused him a lot of problems while traveling in England and Belgium.

Sporting career

In 1919 he took part in the National Marathon organized by the Deccan Gymkhana Club of Pune (then Poona) and after that in some other marathons such as 10 Miles and 1 Mile events at the All-India Open Amateur Athletic Sports Meet in Mumbai (Bombay). He was the winner in all these marathons. On 22 August 1920 he ran the Marathon in the Antwerp Olympics and since that point he became the first Indian Olympic participant. The house of

's first Olympian, P D Chaugule is called as Pavananjaya. He received the title Conqueror of the Wind from the local community after on 7 December 1919, after the Antwerp Olimpics, where he was among the top-20. He died in 1958. A postal cover was released in 2003 to honour him, and the Chaugule Shield Cricket Tournament is organised by a local Gymkhana club every year in

Belagavi Belgaum (Kannada ISO 15919, ISO: ''Bēḷagāma'', ), officially known as Belagavi (also Belgaon), is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located near its northern western border in the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaugule, Phadeppa Dareppa 1952 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for India Indian male marathon runners Indian male long-distance runners Athletes from Karnataka People from Belgaum 20th-century Indian Jains 1902 births