Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Vikas Shive Gowda |
Nationality | Indian |
Born | Mysore, Karnataka, India [1] | 5 July 1983
Height | 205 cm (6 ft 9 in) [2] |
Weight | 133 kg (293 lb) (2016) [2] |
Sport | |
Sport | Athletics |
Event(s) | Discus throw |
Club | North Carolina Tar Heels [1] |
Team | India |
Achievements and titles | |
Personal best(s) | 66.28 m NR (April 2012) |
Updated on 6 July 2017. |
Vikas Shive Gowda (born 5 July 1983) is an Indian discus thrower and shot putter. [3] Born in Mysore, he grew up in Frederick, Maryland in the United States. His father, Shive Gowda, coached the 1988 Indian Olympic track team. Vikas Gowda is a Padma Shri awardee in 2017.
He is an alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the 2006 US NCAA National Champion in discus. [4]
His personal best throw is 66.28 meters which is also Indian national record in discus throw, achieved in 2012. He contested at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but failed to reach the finals after finishing 22nd in the qualifiers, with a throw of 60.69 m. In 2012 London Olympics, Vikas qualified for the finals, at the fifth place, with a throw of 65.20 m [5] [6] and finished eighth in the final.
He won his first gold medal in Asian Championships in 2013 in Pune, with a throw of 64.90 meters. [7] [8] He won the discus throw event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, which made him the second Indian man to win a Commonwealth gold medal, 56 years after Milkha Singh. [9]
After the qualification standard was lowered, he qualified for the 2016 Olympics in the discus, making this his fourth Olympics. [10]
He was the first ever Indian athlete to finish in the top 3 of a Diamond League meet, and as of 2022, only two other Indian athletes had matched his feat. [11]
The men's discus throw competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held at the Olympic Stadium on 21–23 August. It was originally planned to hold the discus throw at the Ancient Olympia Stadium, but it was discovered that the field was not large enough to accommodate the range of modern discus throwers, and would have posed a danger to spectators. As such, it was decided to move the discus throw and to hold the shot put at the ancient stadium, despite the fact that the shot put was not contested at the Ancient Olympic Games. Thirty-nine athletes from 26 nations competed.
John Carl Godina is an American shot putter, whose record includes three World Championship wins and two Olympic medals. He also competes in discus. Godina was born in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Ehsan Haddadi is an Iranian discus thrower. His height is 193 cm and his weight is 127 kg.
Krishna Poonia is an international gold-medalist Indian discus thrower, track-and-field athlete, 2 times Olympics participant, Padma Shri and Arjuna Award recipient, politician from the Congress party and the current MLA from Sadulpur constituency in Rajasthan. She participated in 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. In 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, she won a gold medal. She was appointed the President Of the Rajasthan State Sports Council in February 2022.
Dani Stevens is a retired Australian discus thrower who in 2009 became the youngest ever female world champion in the event. She is the current national and Oceanian record holder. Stevens qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and threw 58.77m in the Women's dicus throw. This was not a sufficient distance to qualify her for the final.
Anil Kumar is a well renowned Indian male discus thrower with his personal best throw of 64.37 metres attained in July, 2004 in Szombathely, Hungary. He received Arjuna Award in 2004 for his performances at Asia level. He is also bestowed with the Bhim Award by State Government of Haryana. He led the Indian athletics contingent for Asian Athletics Grand Prix Series held at Colombo, Bangkok and Manila in June 2003.
Sultana Frizell is a Canadian track and field athlete competing in the hammer throw. Frizell currently trains under the guidance of Derek Evely in Kamloops, British Columbia. She competed at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Frizell is the former Commonwealth Games champion in the hammer throw and Commonwealth Games record holder for the event as well.
Sandra Perković is a Croatian discus thrower. She is a two-time Olympic and world champion and a record six-time European champion which no other female athlete achieved. She is also a six-time Diamond League winner, prevailing in 46 circuit's meetings.
Om Prakash Singh Karhana is an Indian shot putter. He trains at the Salwan Throws Academy, where he first began to learn how to shot put, and is supported by Olympic Gold Quest, a not-for-profit foundation to identify and support Indian athletes. He was originally a basketball player, but was approached by Lalit Bhanot, secretary of the Athletics Federation of India, to consider switching to the shot put.
The men's discus throw was a competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium on 6–7 August. Forty-one athletes from 24 nations competed. The event was won by Robert Harting of Germany, the nation's first victory in the men's discus throw since 1996 and second overall. Ehsan Haddadi earned Iran's first medal in the event with his silver. Gerd Kanter of Estonia became the 15th man to win multiple medals in the event, adding a bronze to his 2008 gold. Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania narrowly missed being the second man to win four medals in the event, finishing fourth.
India competed at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics from August 27 to September 4 in Daegu, South Korea. A team of 8 athletes was announced to represent the country in the event.
India competed at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games held in the Isle of Man from 7 to 13 September 2011. India has participated in all the editions of the Commonwealth Youth Games. The nation was represented by the Indian Olympic Association, which is responsible for the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games in India.
In India, the sport of athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed at national level by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946. Despite its large population, few Indian athletes have won a medal in a global or major championship. This began to change in the 21st century, when Indians started taking greater interest in athletics more generally and improved facilities for the sport began to be built at a local level. At a continental level, it has been among the more successful Asian nations, though some distance behind China and Japan.
Brett Morse is a British athlete who competes in the discus throw.
Apostolos Parellis is a Cypriot track and field athlete specializing in discus throw. He is the current Cypriot national record holder with 66.32 m since October 2019.
Tomas Walsh is a New Zealand athlete who competes mainly in the shot put. He is the current national record holder both outdoors and indoors for the event. His personal best of 22.90 m, set in Doha, 5 October 2019, is also the Oceanian record and makes him the sixth best shot putter in history.
India participated in the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom held from 23 July to 3 August 2014.
Hamish Peacock is an Australian track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. He has competed at the Commonwealth Games, World Championships and the Summer Olympics.
The men's discus throw competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was held at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange on 12–13 August. Thirty-five athletes from 24 nations competed. Germany's Christoph Harting succeeded his brother Robert Harting to the Olympic title. "It was the first time in Olympic history, in any sport, that brothers succeeded each other as Olympic champions in the same individual event." It was also the nation's third victory in the event. Poland's Piotr Małachowski took the silver medal ahead of another German, Daniel Jasinski. Małachowski had also won silver eight years before, making him the 16th man to win multiple medals in the discus throw.
Neeraj Chopra is an Indian track and field athlete, who is the reigning Olympic champion, World champion and the Diamond League champion in the javelin throw. He is the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in his event and the first such Asian to win gold at the World Championship. A Junior Commissioned Officer Subedar (JCO) in the Indian Army, Chopra is the first track and field athlete to win a gold medal for India at the Olympics. He is also the first track and field athlete from India to win at the World Under-20 Championships, where in 2016 he achieved a world U20 record throw of 86.48 m, becoming the first Indian athlete to set a world record.