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DS Bajaj

Excellence in Sports

Updated: Sep 6, 2021


A Rimcollian, is baptised into sports when the sprawling fields and daunting sports facilities unfurl before him as he discovers the corners of RIMC. The sports spirit gets embedded during the inter-section sports competitions albeit fought, as if life and death depends upon them. There is not a sport which has not passed through the portals of RIMC with Boxing taking the position of pride. Nonetheless, Rimcollians have acquitted themselves with pride and honour in the Sports arena too.



The Squash Bucklers

Squash is a legacy game of the Rimcollians who have written the script of modern Indian Squash. This is one game which was nurtured at RIMC due to the facilities that existed and the constant motivation by Principals like Mr Hugh Catchpole and later by stalwarts like Mr RC Singhal and Mr RC Sharma. Maj Gen YK Yadav or YK as he was popularly known spent his time in RIMC 1948 to mid-1950 and was one of the first stalwarts of sport at national level sports from RIMC. He was commissioned in the Regiment of Artillery and played for the National championship in 1958.

It is undeniable that the future generation of Rimcollians would consider him as a torch bearer of sorts not just in Squash. The true Rimcollian legends of squash started with Brig Raj Manchanda, Arjuna Awardee, who went on to be the national champion for several years in a row. Several Rimcollians have made it to the Services’ Squash Team at various points in time. Those whose names which come readily are Sanjeev Khatri, Adhiraj Yadav, Jagdeep Kairon, Sandeep Singh, Vikram Varma, Akshay Joshi, Pradeep Singh, DS Bajaj, Rohit Teotia, Salil Bisht, Gaurav Bhandari and Anuj Kalia amongst others.



Soccer

The Soccer fields of RIMC truly produced some great players but somehow the rigours of military life or a career often swallow these skills into a tunnel of exigencies of service.


Athletics

The first person who comes to limelight is none other than late Brig Chander Singh Thapa who was the “local lad” of Doon. In 1968, Dehradun District Athletics became a launch platform for him to represent the district in the UP State Athletics Championship. He became the 200-metre winner in the Under 16 Category and represented the state at national championships.

Mr VK Rai though not a Rimcollian but has been an architect of many athletes with his coaching combined with character building. In his heydays he was a national level athlete who got an opportunity to be trained by the legendary Jesse Owens. When Col Arun Mamgain was the Commandant, he chanced upon a book written by Mr Rai and learned that he lived in Garhi. Despite being 74, he took up the challenge of training RIMC Athletics Team. He went about the job despite being underpaid for the job in a very methodical way and soon had RIMC shining in all the competitions including District athletics and Indian Public School Conference Competitions. His contribution to RIMC athletes and their character building is now part of folklore and despite not being a Rimcollian, he needs to be in this place of honour.



Equestrian

Youngest sports discipline at RIMC has been Equestrian when General S Padmanabhan (Shivaji 1952-56) became the Chief of Army Staff. He indorsed this facility and ever since RIMC has produced many a good rider. Lt Omkar Dalvi (Pratap 2011-16), son of our illustrious Section Master Mr UP Dalvi has made his alma mater proud in the field of Equestrian. At NDA he lifted a huge cache of medals including being the best Cadet Rider in 2016 at the nationals and 2018. Another tall figure in this sport is Maj Ashish Malik (Chandragupta 2001-05), who earned his spurs in RIMC and was the Junior National Equestrian Championship in 2006. He later represented the country in the Jakarta Asian games in 2018 and bagged a Silver Medal as a part of the Indian Equestrian Team.



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