bangalore the rajyotsava award may have come 28 years after the nation honored dr codanda madappa muthiah with the asiad vishisht jyothi award for his contribution as the technical director of the 1982 games but the veteran athleteturnedcoachturnedsports administrator who is also one of the architects of indias sports policies is not too perturbed as toi caught up with muthiah at his jayamahal home the 81yearold had nothing to say about the delay in recognition instead he focused on the early days of indian sports including the inception of the national institute of sports in patiala the fivetime national champion in decathlon 195660 who is at ease with footpoundsecond system of measurement said a highpower committee tasked with the formation of nis visited bangalore among other places but couldnt find enough land for the centre the nis would have been in bangalore if we had provided the land but that didnt happen it was then that the maharaja of patiala expressed his willingness to give 260 acres for around rs 28 crore he said muthiah was later instrumental in getting sai south centre to bangalore the neighboring states were also interested but we had the advantage of climate we also persuaded the cm and bangalore university vc to give the land a native of kodagu who graduated from central college in the city muthiah said his biggest regret was missing the decathlon medal at the tokyo asian games in 1958 it was a narrow miss as i lost the bronze by 82 points i was within touching distance for the silver too but the 100m spoiled it i normally do 108 seconds but i ran a 109 and squandered 120 points the indian squad also had milkha singh but he was yet to hit peak form said muthiah the champion athlete was also the first indian to take part in the world university games in budapest hungary and received the award for the best athlete in developing countries i won the silver there in hop step and jump triple jump he said an ncc cadet muthiah also won the best cadet award from prime minister jawaharlal nehru in 1954 at the republic day camp during his long innings at nis in patiala muthiah started off as a coach in 1962 training the likes of tc yohannan suresh babu vs chauhan and vr beedu and mentoring former india hockey captain mp ganesh he retired as director in 1990 in 1968 i went to germany to do my masters in biomechanics and also my doctorate during this time i published a new theory that there is reverse action during take off in long jump this paper was published at the 3rd biomechanics congress in rome said muthiah a golden shoe award winner for the best coach in asia at the 1974 games in tehran explaining his experiment muthiah who won the gold medal for his masters in germany said i was part of a team of german coaches at the mexio olympics