Om Prakash Bhardwaj (18 March 1942 – 21 May 2021) was a boxing coach from Chennai, India. In 1985, he was awarded the

Dronacharya Award The Dronacharya Award, officially known as Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, is sports coaching honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Drona, often referred as "Dronacharya" or "Guru Drona", a ch ...

, India's highest award in the field of coaching of sports and athletics. He is India's first Dronacharya awardee coach for boxing. Bhardwaj was national coach from 1968 to 1989. During this time, Indian boxers had been on top of the medals tally in the Asian Games (1970–1986), Mini Commonwealth Games (Brisbane, 1982), Kings Cup (Bangkok, 1982) and SAF Games (Calcutta, 1987). He was the founder of the Boxing Coaching Department at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, where he was chief coach from 1975 to 1988. He trained around 15,000 boxers in India. Bhardwaj also taught some basic boxing techniques to

Rahul Gandhi Rahul Gandhi ( ; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, representing the constituency of Wayanad, Kerala in the 17th Lok Sabha. A member of the Indian National Congress, he served as the president of ...

References

1942 births 2021 deaths Recipients of the Dronacharya Award Indian boxing coaches Martial artists from Delhi People from Chennai {{India-boxing-bio-stub