Chandigarh coach killed while cycling near Manimajra traffic lights, wanted his trainees to win Olympic medal

Kundu was born at Shahpur village near Panipat in Haryana and had joined Chandigarh Police as constable in 1980. It was in 1984 that Kundu did the diploma in coaching from NIS, Patiala, and joined the Sports Authority of India as a coach in Chandigarh in 1986. After initially working in Chandigarh, he coached the wrestlers at the SAI centre at Dara Studio in Mohali from 1999 to 2006. After that, Kundu sold his house in Mohali to purchase land for the Gulzar Wrestling Akhada at Zirakpur in 2006 and later it was also made the SAI training centre. Kundu had coached more than 50 international medallists, including Olympians Hardeep Singh, multiple Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medallists like Krishan Kundu.

“When I joined the centre at Zirakpur from my village Dahola near Jind, coach sahib made sure that I did not miss home. Every trainee had access to his home and kitchen, and whatever we needed to eat, the doors were always open. He would often call Olympic medallists like Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt to motivate the trainees and when I represented India in 97 kg category at Rio Olympics, he made sure that the young trainees met me,” says two-time Asian Championships gold medallist and three-time Commonwealth Championships gold medallist Hardeep Singh.

A lot of Kundu’s trainees had got jobs in the government sector and remembered the coach for changing their lives.

“I came to train under RS Kundu sir in 2003 at Dara Studio. While he was a SAI coach, he would always help wrestlers with training or dietary needs. He rarely missed training sessions. Sometimes, we would have morning training sessions and he would have a meeting to attend in Delhi. We would think that he would not return the same day or would want to rest but he would reach at time for the evening training and make us toil at the mat,” said two-time Commonwealth Championships champion Gurpreet Singh, who works with Punjab Police.

Three-time Khelo India champion and multiple national champion Honey Pal Singh had come from his village Khajala near Amritsar to train under Kundu. “Kundu sir had sold his house and land in Mohali to build this akhada.

While most of the trainees would not ask him for help, he would get to know and help them. Such was his passion that he would not hesitate to ask other wrestlers to support his trainees with diet or monetary help. He also organised the Gulzar Gold Cup in the memory of wrestler Gulzar Singh Sandhu every year on April 4 with cash prizes of Rs 25 lakh. We wish to continue this tradition every year,” said Honey Pal Singh.