Henry Rebello

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This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.

A profile

Ronojoy Sen | TNN

From the archives of The Times of India: 2008

FORGOTTEN OLYMPIAN

In the 1948 London Olympics, a teenage triple jumper from Bangalore, Henry Rebello, was considered a sure medal prospect. With the best jump worldwide in 1948 — 50 feet 2 inches at a national meet in Lucknow — he was the favourite for the event. Rebello followed it with a 52 feet one-and-half-inches jump, a few inches short of the world record, a fortnight before the Games. But on D-day, he faltered.

As Rebello has recounted in an interview to sports journalist Gulu Ezekiel, he committed two fateful mistakes that drizzly and cold afternoon in London. One, he did not warm up before his jump; two, he went flat out in his first jump itself. The result was a torn hamstring as Rebello launched into his jump. He landed in a heap in the pit, his medal dreams in tatters. His misfortune was partially rectified by K D Jadhav, who won independent India’s first individual medal in 1952 — a bronze in bantamweight wrestling.