Suresh Goel (20 June 1943 – 13 April 1978) was an

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 ...

n national

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

champion and a recipient of

Arjuna award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards given for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjun ...

Early life

Goel was born in

Allahabad Prayagraj (, ; ISO 15919, ISO: ), formerly and colloquially known as Allahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi, Varanasi (Benar ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

in 1943. He started playing badminton at young age of 10 and at the age of 14 was national junior champion.

Career

He was the men's national singles champion on five occasions from 1962 to 1970 and also won national titles in men's doubles and mixed doubles. He was honoured with Arjuna award in 1967. He represented India in

Thomas Cup The Thomas Cup, sometimes referred as World Men's Team Championships, is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championships h ...

in 1960-61 and captained the Indian team against

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Jaipur Jaipur (; , ) is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the List of cities and towns in Rajasthan, largest city of the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had ...

in 1969–70. He also played in

U.S. Open Badminton Championships The U.S. Open Badminton Championships is an annual badminton tournament first held in 1954. During the 1950s and 1960s it often attracted the world's top players. The 2015 Yonex Suffolk County Community College US Open Championships, held in Bren ...

in 1967 and reached the final where he lost to

Erland Kops Erland Kops (14 January 1937 – 18 February 2017) was a badminton player from Denmark who won numerous major international singles and doubles titles from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Early life Kops was born in 1937. His uncles were ...

of Denmark. Goel played at the prestigious

All England Championship The IPW:UK All-England Championship (formerly the FWA All-England Championship) was a professional wrestling championship which was originally contested for in Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) and subsequently in International Pro Wrestling: Un ...

many times. He represented India at 1966

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

and 1970

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

and in 1972 Munich

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. In 1978 at the age of 35, he died of heart failure while exercising at the running track of the amphitheatre grounds of the

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...

External links

*
Suresh GoelStatistics on badmintonindia.org
1943 births 1978 deaths Indian male badminton players Olympic badminton players for India Indian national badminton champions Commonwealth Games badminton players for India Recipients of the Arjuna Award Sportspeople from Prayagraj Racket sportspeople from Uttar Pradesh Badminton players at the 1972 Summer Olympics Badminton players at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Badminton players at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games {{India-badminton-bio-stub