Mohinder Singh Gill

Mohinder Singh Gill is a retired Indian triple jumper who competed at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Mohinder Singh Gill
Mohinder Singh Gill
Personal information
Full nameMohinder Singh Gill
Nationality American
Born (1947-04-12) 12 April 1947
Nawa Jamsher, Lyallpur District, British India
Height182 cm (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight75 kg (165 lb)
Sport
CountryIndia
SportTrack and field
Event(s)Triple jump
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)TJ – 16.79 (1971) Indian Record for almost 40 years. 57’ 5.5” (1972 ) Controversial foul was measured over World Record.
Medal record
Representing  India
Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal – third place1970 EdinburghTriple jump
Silver medal – second place 1974 Christchurch Triple jump
Asian Games
Gold medal – first place1970 BangkokTriple jump
Silver medal – second place1974 TehranTriple jump
Asian Championships
Gold medal – first place1973 ManilaTriple jump
Pre-Olympics
Silver medal – second place1971 MunichTriple Jump
Silver medal – second place1972 MunichTriple Jump

Gill won 52 major international invitational competitions in North America and Europe, setting 19 new records in the process. In addition, he won five NCAA Championships, all with new records.[2] Some of those records stood 40 years later.[3]

Early life

Gill was sent for playing volleyball when he was in eighth grade. After three years, he quit volleyball and took up high jump. When he failed in high jump in a championship at the age of 17, he tried triple jump and won with a jump of 41 feet and 4 inches. After this, he received a sports scholarship from the Kurukshtetra University. He attended for one year before moving to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.[4]

College career

Gill attended Cal Poly, competing in the triple jump from 1968 to 1971, winning five total NCAA championships between divisions and setting five combined NCAA records.

In August 1970, while majoring in business administration, he was selected as the CCAA's Male Athlete of the Year for all sports.[5]

On May 8, 1971, Gill triple-jumped to a mark of 55 feet, 1.25 inches (or 16.79m) at the West Coast Relays in Fresno, producing the second-longest triple jump ever on American soil at the time, and earning Outstanding Athlete of the Meet accolades.[6][7][8] As a Cal Poly senior in 1971, he ranked sixth in the world during the year.[9]

During an era when intercollegiate athletes could move up from the College Division ranks, Gill went on to claim two NCAA Division I individual outdoor national championships: first in 1970 at Drake and then again in 1971 in Seattle.

A profile in the Sacramento Bee in 1971 described Gill as "Six feet, 163 pounds, fast enough to run 100 yards in 9.6 seconds, strong enough to do squat jumps with 300 pounds across his shoulders, dead-lift 500 pounds, practice half squats carrying 650 pounds and to do toe raises packing 700 pounds."[4]

For indoor competition, Gill also won the 1971 NCAA crown in Detroit.

International success

In 1970, Gill was given India's highest sports award, the Arjuna Award.[10]

After placing second in a pre-Olympic meet in Munich, he competed while injured in 1972 and failed to reach the final.[1][11] Gill won one gold and one silver medal at the Asian Games.[12]

Gill won two of India's five-ever medals at the Commonwealth Games. There were attempts to remove him from the national team, but Prime Minister Indira Gandhi intervened to allow him to compete.[10]

Later years

He was elected into the Cal Poly Mustangs' Hall of Fame in 1993[13] as the only Asian to receive the honor. He currently resides in Turlock in central California.[14]

References
  1. Mohinder Singh Gill. sports-reference.com
  2. Mohinder Gill. "Mohinder Gill – Cal Poly". Gopoly.com. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  3. "2013 Cal Poly ShareSlo.com Invitational San Luis Obispo, CA Results online at". Phototiming.com. 16 March 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  4. Don Bloom, India's Gill Will Wow 'Em Tonight, The Sacramento Bee, 11 June 1971
  5. "CCAA 'athlete' award goes to Poly's Gill". San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune. 13 August 1970. p. 7.
  6. "A Roundup of the Sports Information of the Week". Sports Illustrated. 17 May 1971.
  7. Shaw, Wayne (10 May 1971). "Gill's greatest leap tops Fresno Relays". San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune. p. 8.
  8. Conner, Terry (4 June 1971). "Gill eyes Olympics, then acting". Mustang Daily. p. 7.
  9. Cal Poly Track & Field History and Record Book. Cal Poly University Athletics Department. 2022. p. 22.
  10. "I'm pained by reported scams in Commonwealth Games: Gill". The Times of India. 15 August 2010. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013.
  11. "The Sunday Tribune – Spectrum – Article". Tribuneindia.com. 25 November 2001. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
  12. Asian Games. gbrathletics.com
  13. "Newest inductees". San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune. 11 October 1993. pp. C5.
  14. Singh, Rajmeet (25 September 2006). "Olympian on a mission to warn against NRI conmen". tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 16 February 2017.


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