Henry Rebello

Henry Rebello is a long-forgotten name in the world of Indian sport. Ironically in a nation devoid of world-class athletes, we have failed to remember the first top-quality athlete of independent India. Rebello flashed across the Indian sky as a comet.

As a strapping 19 year-old triple jumper (called ‘hop, step and jump’ in earlier eras as the jump literally is) just prior to the London Olympic Games in 1948, Henry Rebello of India caused a sensation. The callow youth was consistently crossing 50 plus feet during the previous one year. He had no competition in India. His 50 plus feet placed him among the top triple-jumpers of the world.

In a tournament in the United Kingdom just before the London Olympic in 1948 he was again at his best. The athletic experts predicted a certain medal for India in the triple jump event. On current form there was little doubt that an athletics medal was awaiting India. Never since Norman Pritchard – a former Calcutta Xaverian – in 1900 at the Paris Olympiad did any Indian athlete create such an expectation.

On the day of the triple jump Henry Rebello easily crossed the qualifying marks in the morning and was among the best jumpers waiting for the final event later in the day. He began his warm-up exercises to get ready for his first of three jumps in the final elimination round.

Just as he was ready and about to begin his run leading to the jump, he was asked to wait for a medal ceremony that was being held in close vicinity. Henry Rebello had no option. He had to wait for the ceremony to be over. He put on his track suit back again. Then suddenly without any notice the Olympic officials asked him to go for the jump.

Now there was no time for any further warm-up. Young and inexperienced Henry had no one beside him who could have helped him to deal with the officials. Without warming-up, an athlete taking a jump is unheard of. That, too, in the Olympic Games! But that is exactly what happened. Henry Rebello was forced to go for the first jump without any further preparation.

Teenager Henry Rebello with the typical adventurous spirit of youthful energy went for the jump with the maximum effort. Airborne, he heard his hamstring muscle snap and he fell in a heap. He had to be carried out on a stretcher. His Olympic dream was over. India’s best medal prospect was let down through sheer inexperience and the cold, blistery London weather.

The interval of the wait had a disastrous effect on the young man’s physique. In those vital 15 minutes, the warmed-up body lost the effect of the warm-up exercises. The cold and biting-breezy conditions of London got through to him. In the warmer Indian clime the effect of the warm-up exercises would have stayed much longer. Used to Indian environment, the inexperienced youth did not realize that the body would become stiff in such a short while.

If he was experienced enough or had a proper coach beside him, he would not have given much effort in the first of the three jumps. He would have taken the first jump easy because there were two more jumps available to him. After the first jump he could have warmed up and prepared himself for the following jumps. This is what experience and guidance are all about. It was too much to expect from an inexperienced, excited youth in his teens. For these umpteenth subtle reasons one needs a genuine coach.

Ultimately the gold went at 50 feet six and a half inches; the bronze at 49 feet three and a half inches. Both these figures our Henry had crossed so many times. A supremely fit Henry never had the slightest of muscle strain in his career yet at the decisive moment he was laid low. On such slender margin depends one’s destiny.

Henry Rebello’s life and career reveal the general callousness of our sports officials in India. With only a few exceptions, people who have handled Indian sport have not done justice to the responsibility bestowed on them. It is precisely these issues that separated Pankaj Gupta –   India’s versatile cricket and hockey manager from 1936 to 1952 – from the others who managed Indian teams. Where were the India team’s athletics manager and coach when Henry Rebello was being pushed out and pushed in at the time of the decisive jump? Nobody would ever know. Nobody would ask. Nobody would be accountable. That’s the typical Indian sports scenario.

As a youngster Henry Rebello was a most reluctant sportsman. He was more into studies, as is the normal trend in India among the educated middle-class. But his school headmaster in Bangalore was very particular that every student must take compulsory part in sporting activities. Henry had to follow the school rules.

Within a year he was actually showing enormous talent as a triple jumper. Every record was his at school, district and State levels. At 18 he was the national champion. So far ahead of the rest was he that his competition was against himself.

His amazing consistency resulted in reaching the Olympic qualifying mark with ease. He had a natural style and flair. Not coached, he developed his own technique. He was hailed by the critics to be a certain Olympic medal prospect in view of his consistency and form.

After the disastrous injury, Henry Rebello concentrated more on his career in the Indian Air Force and gave exemplary service to his country. After retirement he was the first director at the National Institute of Sports. He was an all-round sportsman and had shown remarkable dexterity as an administrator.

While other Olympic non-medalists were repeatedly brought into public focus through various forums, our first-ever world-class athlete was totally ostracized. Surprisingly he never got any worthwhile mention in the Indian media. We hardly ever heard of him when we were young. No one seemed to have known anything about him. No one cared to remember him. Unfortunately he was destined to lead a life in obscurity.

I was indeed fortunate to have had a Jesuit priest in our Calcutta St Xavier’s College, Reverend Cecil Leeming SJ – himself a national-level athlete during his youth in the 1930s – to tell us of the magnificent exploits of Henry Rebello.

With his fantastic sports and scholastic background Henry Rebello should have been an ideal role model for the Indian youth in the post independence era. Instead he became a non-entity. No awards. No national honours. Perpetually ignored, his name still resides in some obscure foot-note of Indian athletics history.

That an athlete of genuine world-class should be neglected and ignored is just a reflection of the status a world-class sport champion has in Indian society. Why can we not honour them posthumously at least?

 

 

Henry Rebello

Henry Rebello is a long-forgotten name in the world of Indian sport. Ironically in a nation devoid of world-class athletes, we have failed to remember the first top-quality athlete of independent India. Rebello flashed across the Indian sky as a comet.

As a strapping 19 year-old triple jumper (called ‘hop, step and jump’ in earlier eras as the jump literally is) just prior to the London Olympic Games in 1948, Henry Rebello of India caused a sensation. The callow youth was consistently crossing 50 plus feet during the previous one year. He had no competition in India. His 50 plus feet placed him among the top triple-jumpers of the world.

In a tournament in the United Kingdom just before the London Olympic in 1948 he was again at his best. The athletic experts predicted a certain medal for India in the triple jump event. On current form there was little doubt that an athletics medal was awaiting India. Never since Norman Pritchard – a former Calcutta Xaverian – in 1900 at the Paris Olympiad did any Indian athlete create such an expectation.

On the day of the triple jump Henry Rebello easily crossed the qualifying marks in the morning and was among the best jumpers waiting for the final event later in the day. He began his warm-up exercises to get ready for his first of three jumps in the final elimination round.

Just as he was ready and about to begin his run leading to the jump, he was asked to wait for a medal ceremony that was being held in close vicinity. Henry Rebello had no option. He had to wait for the ceremony to be over. He put on his track suit back again. Then suddenly without any notice the Olympic officials asked him to go for the jump.

Now there was no time for any further warm-up. Young and inexperienced Henry had no one beside him who could have helped him to deal with the officials. Without warming-up, an athlete taking a jump is unheard of. That, too, in the Olympic Games! But that is exactly what happened. Henry Rebello was forced to go for the first jump without any further preparation.

Teenager Henry Rebello with the typical adventurous spirit of youthful energy went for the jump with the maximum effort. Airborne, he heard his hamstring muscle snap and he fell in a heap. He had to be carried out on a stretcher. His Olympic dream was over. India’s best medal prospect was let down through sheer inexperience and the cold, blistery London weather.

The interval of the wait had a disastrous effect on the young man’s physique. In those vital 15 minutes, the warmed-up body lost the effect of the warm-up exercises. The cold and biting-breezy conditions of London got through to him. In the warmer Indian clime the effect of the warm-up exercises would have stayed much longer. Used to Indian environment, the inexperienced youth did not realize that the body would become stiff in such a short while.

If he was experienced enough or had a proper coach beside him, he would not have given much effort in the first of the three jumps. He would have taken the first jump easy because there were two more jumps available to him. After the first jump he could have warmed up and prepared himself for the following jumps. This is what experience and guidance are all about. It was too much to expect from an inexperienced, excited youth in his teens. For these umpteenth subtle reasons one needs a genuine coach.

Ultimately the gold went at 50 feet six and a half inches; the bronze at 49 feet three and a half inches. Both these figures our Henry had crossed so many times. A supremely fit Henry never had the slightest of muscle strain in his career yet at the decisive moment he was laid low. On such slender margin depends one’s destiny.

Henry Rebello’s life and career reveal the general callousness of our sports officials in India. With only a few exceptions, people who have handled Indian sport have not done justice to the responsibility bestowed on them. It is precisely these issues that separated Pankaj Gupta –   India’s versatile cricket and hockey manager from 1936 to 1952 – from the others who managed Indian teams. Where were the India team’s athletics manager and coach when Henry Rebello was being pushed out and pushed in at the time of the decisive jump? Nobody would ever know. Nobody would ask. Nobody would be accountable. That’s the typical Indian sports scenario.

As a youngster Henry Rebello was a most reluctant sportsman. He was more into studies, as is the normal trend in India among the educated middle-class. But his school headmaster in Bangalore was very particular that every student must take compulsory part in sporting activities. Henry had to follow the school rules.

Within a year he was actually showing enormous talent as a triple jumper. Every record was his at school, district and State levels. At 18 he was the national champion. So far ahead of the rest was he that his competition was against himself.

His amazing consistency resulted in reaching the Olympic qualifying mark with ease. He had a natural style and flair. Not coached, he developed his own technique. He was hailed by the critics to be a certain Olympic medal prospect in view of his consistency and form.

After the disastrous injury, Henry Rebello concentrated more on his career in the Indian Air Force and gave exemplary service to his country. After retirement he was the first director at the National Institute of Sports. He was an all-round sportsman and had shown remarkable dexterity as an administrator.

While other Olympic non-medalists were repeatedly brought into public focus through various forums, our first-ever world-class athlete was totally ostracized. Surprisingly he never got any worthwhile mention in the Indian media. We hardly ever heard of him when we were young. No one seemed to have known anything about him. No one cared to remember him. Unfortunately he was destined to lead a life in obscurity.

I was indeed fortunate to have had a Jesuit priest in our Calcutta St Xavier’s College, Reverend Cecil Leeming SJ – himself a national-level athlete during his youth in the 1930s – to tell us of the magnificent exploits of Henry Rebello.

With his fantastic sports and scholastic background Henry Rebello should have been an ideal role model for the Indian youth in the post independence era. Instead he became a non-entity. No awards. No national honours. Perpetually ignored, his name still resides in some obscure foot-note of Indian athletics history.

That an athlete of genuine world-class should be neglected and ignored is just a reflection of the status a world-class sport champion has in Indian society. Why can we not honour them posthumously at least?