Charles Borromeo Biography 
Charles Borromeo is a former Indian track and field athlete from Tamil Nadu, who was most active in the 1980s. He won gold at the 1982 Asian Games held at Delhi at a record time of 1:46:81 seconds. He is associated with 800m event. This Olympian also appeared in 1984 Summer Olympics held at Los Angeles. Post retirement, he has been involved with other activities related to promoting sports and also served as National Sports Director of Special Olympics Bharat, a programme run by the Special Olympics International in India. For his contributions towards sports, especially athletics, Government of India honoured him with the fourth highest civilian honour - Padma Shri in 1984. He was awarded Arjuna Award in 1982 following his ‘gold’ achievement in Delhi Asiad.
Charles Borromeo was born in Devakottai, Sivaganga district, Tamil Nadu on 1 December 1958. His early education was done at his hometown, where he was brought up. Later he graduated from St. Xavier's College, Ahmedabad. During his college days he was quite active in sports activities and has also owned Best Sportsman Award of his college. He registered a record time at the Inter-University Meet in 1978, which enabled him more opportunities at national level. At first he got opportunity to represent the Indian universities at the 1979 Summer Universiade, held in Mexico.
Soon after he studies, he joined Tata Steel as Sports Assistant in 1979. Since then he also participated in a number of track and field meets. In 1982 he topped the six-nation Athletic Meet in Mumbai and also registered first among his international achievements at Pakistan, China and Germany. He won gold with a national record in 800m event in Asiad 1984, which is regarded as his most memorable moment of his professional career.
Published: February 04, 2019
Updated: February 04, 2019
