The forgotten hero of Indian sports: Prakash Padukone

New Delhi: Born on June 10, 1955, in Bangalore, Prakash Padukone played badminton for India for three long decades. He gave Indian badminton a new path and took it to great heights.Lets take a look at this great shuttler's professional career briefly.Prakash Padukone had interest in badminton since his childhood as his father was associated with Mysore Badminton Association as secretary.Padukone debuted in an official badminton tournament with a loss in the first round of Karnataka State Junior Championship in 1962. But after much hard work, two years later Prakash won the same State Junior Title. From 1971, he started playing more aggressively and as a result won the Indian National Junior Championship the same year and he won the National badminton champion title for seven straight years.He won his first gold medal and also his maiden International title at the Commonwealth Games held in Canada in 1978. At the Royal Albert Hall in London, Prakash won the title of Evening of Champions in 1979.He dominated in various championships like Danish Open, Swedish Open. He also hold the record of becoming the first Indian to win All England Championship in 1980.For his extra ordinary performances, He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 and the Padma Shri in 1982. He bid adieu to badminton in 1991, and commenced his job as coach of Indian national badminton team in 1993. He was made the coach in 1996 again.Prakash has a small family, wife Ujjala and two daughters. One is Deepika Padukone who is a well known Bollywood star and the other is Anisha Padukone who is a golfer.He runs Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore.