Suresh Babu (10 February 1953 - 19 February 2011) was an Indian long jumper from Kerala who had held the national titles in the long, triple, and high jump events, in addition to the decathlon. He was one of the few athletes to win medals in two events in successive Asian Games, the bronze in the decathlon in the Tehran Asian Games in 1974 and a gold in the long jump in the Bangkok Asian Games, 1978.
Suresh Babu dominated the scene between 1972 and 1979, holding national titles in the jumps and decathlon and at the same time picking his event for laurels on the international arena.
Babu died on 19 February 2011 in Ranchi while attending the 2011 National Games of India.
Early life
Born in Kollam in Kerala on 10 February 1953, Suresh Babu was a science graduate who came good in athletics. The foundation for his athletics career was laid in the Infant Jesus High School and the Fatima Mata College in Kollam. His first fling at the national level -was as a junior at Jalandhar in 1969. Three years later he won the national championship in high jump, a title he was to claim for six more years. Switching from one pit to another, he won the national championship in long jump during the years 1974, 1977 and 1979 and the triple jump in 1974, 1976 and 1978. In between he strayed over to the ten card event of decathlon and imposed himself on the national scene in the championships held in 1974, 1975 and 1978.
International career
The Munich Olympics of 1972 was his first experience of international athletics but he had to wait for the Tehran Asian Games in 1974 for his first medal. This was a Bronze in the decathlon, a medal enriched to Gold in the Asian Championships at Seoul the following year. In between he captained the Indian Universities athletics team to the World Universities Games at Moscow in 1973.
Suresh Babu led the Indian athletics team to the 1978 Commonwealth Games at Edmonton in Canada and concentrating on the long jump event fetched a Bronze there. He then went on to pick up the Gold at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok, His winning effort of 7.85 metres was far short of T. C. Yohannan's 8.07 metres of the earlier Games but he had maintained an Indian tradition with the Gold Medal. His next target was the 1979 Asian Athletics Meet in Tokyo where he picked up a Silver, During his seven years as an active athlete Suresh Babu also won medals for India at competitions in Ceylon, Lahore and the Philippines and was the captain of the Indian team for the World Athletics Meet at Montreal in 1979.