Many
well-known personalities in the field of sports and
games have adorned Kannur in their respective fields.
The Englishmen of the Military Center brought hockey,
cricket, football, etc to Kannur during the pre-independence
period. The famous Fort Maidan and police Maidan provide
ample facilities for youths to excell in this field.
The CDRE Football team and Hockey team excelled in
those days. At the same time the traditional martial
art 'Kalaripayat' has also been here all along.
After independence, the football clubs helped spread
the spirit of the game in Kannur. Spirited Youths,
Lucky Star, Brothers club and Gymkhana Club were popular
and produced well known players like D'crub soman,
Dasan, etc.
In Hockey too, apart from the military team, there
were good teams in Kannur and Thalassery. Cricket,
ball-badminton, weight lifting, gymnastics, wrestling,
volleyball, etc have been widely played in both urban
and rural areas. Volleyball has been concentrated
upon by youths in rural areas. When sports Divisions
were started in schools in 1976 to tap talents, one
such division was started in this district. the Sports
Division attached to Govt. Higher Secondary School,
Kannur produced international stars like P.T. Usha
and M.D Valsamma in atheletics, Leelamma Thomas and
Moly Benedict in basketball and Anitha Retnam and
Anadavalli in Vollyball. The police maidan was the
venue for M.D. Valsamma and Mercy Mathew to practice
atheletics, P.K. Balachandaran and George in football
and Ford and Olympian Federics in hockey. Westline
& Leslie in cricket had also their training at
Fort Maidan.
Kannur also become famous in South India for ball
badminton, when T.K. Ramakrishna and Kumaran were
playing. A.M. Bharathan created history in weight
lifting in the early fifties.
EMINENT SPORTS PERSONALITIES
| C.K.
Lakshmanan |
First
to represent India in Athletics in Olympics. |
| Mercy
Mathew |
Represented
India in the Invitation Athletic Meet held at
Karachi in 1980. |
| M.D.
Valsamma |
Represented
India twice in Asian Games and once in Olymics
in Atheletics. |
| P.T.
Usha |
Asian
Games Champion and Oliympion in Athletics. |
| D'
Curz |
Footballer;
represented India and played against a foreign
team on their visit to India. |
| P.K.
Balachandran |
Represented
India in the pre-Olympic Football tournament held
at Singapore in 1980. |
| C.P.
Soman |
Football
player ; represented India when the Indian team
visited USSR. |
| C.P.
Ratnaraj |
Represented
Indian School Team in 1969 against Ceylon Schools
in Football Team. |
| Devadaa
|
Represented
Indian Services team when it played against visiting
foregin football teams. |
| K.
Raghvan |
Represented
Indian Services team when playing against visiting
foreign football teams. |
| Leelamma
Thomas |
Represented
India in Asian games in 1986 in basketball. |
| Molly
P. Benedict |
Represented
India in Asian games in 1986 in basketball. |
| A.M.
Bharathan |
Famous
weight lifter of India. |
| Fredrics
Ford |
Hockey
Player repesented India in 1984 Olympics. |
| T.Sreedharan
Nair and C.v. Narayanan. |
Well
known artists of ancient warfare and kalaripayat.
|
| T.K.
Ramaksrishnan |
An
Outstanding ball Badminton player of South India
who won many laurels for Kannoor. |
| Jimmy
George |
Represented
India in Asian Games and many other International
volleyball matches. |
Ford,
Leslie Aron Babu
Acharath and Madendra |
Well
known cricket players. |
|
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