Ganga Prasad: An athlete with a difference

By Ashutosh Raina

He has learned and played numerous sports and brought laurels to the country. Determined to teach the simple art of staying fit and healthy through sports, he started coaching students in school. Meet Ganga Prasad, an athlete today who started playing sports at the age of 6, Ganga’s biggest motivation and inspiration were his Teachers at school. He played Soccer and Athletics and then went on to learn Badminton, Squash, Swimming, Table Tennis and Chess at High School.

He has competed in numerous Sports tournaments and championships and won awards, certificates and trophies. When he entered University, he learnt other sports like Volleyball, Hockey and continued playing all those Sports and represented Colleges and Universities in the above sports.

He had been a Sports Teacher at many Primary and Secondary schools. And he has trained and motivated many young sports enthusiasts.

Some of the Championships he has played in and won medals are as:

• World Masters Athletics Championships in Brisbane 2001
• Asia Pacific Masters Games at Gold Coast since 1998  till today  – played in Table Tennis, Badminton  and Athletics ( won numerous medals)
• Pan Pacific Masters Athletics Championships
• Fiji National Games  . Table Tennis, Squash, Badminton and Athletics
• Fiji National Athletics Championships – Athletics
• Oceania Veterans Athletics Games (1980 – 2016) –  many times
• Queensland State Athletics Championships – (1998- 2016) – Uncountable number of medals

Ganga Prasad’s Australian Masters Athletics Championships include:

• Queensland and Australian Weight Pentathanlon Championships
• Queensland and Australian Decathalon Championships
• Trans – Tasman  Throwing Championships
• Gold Coast Manters Annual Athletics Championships
• Sunshine Coast Annual Athletics Championships
• Gympie Annual Winter athletic Championships
• Maryborough Masters Games won 10 medals
• Ipswich  Winter Athletics Annual Athletics Championships

Ask him what interests him other than sports and he says, “Apart from teaching career in Sports, writing and travelling are my other interests.”

When asked about his future plans, Ganga said with a confident smile, “There are lots of competitions coming up in near future and I will win more medals.”