Happy Birthday to Former Athlete Shiny Willson
Shiny Wilson is a retired Indian athlete. She has been a National Champion in 800 meters for 14 years. Let us wish her a very happy birthday.
Born in Thodupuzha in the Idukki district of Kerala on 8 May 1965, Shiny Willson (nee Abraham) became interested in athletics as a child but developed her skills after joining the sports division in Kottayam. Shiny Abraham’s athletics career ran alongside that of PT Usha from the time the two of them represented the country in the Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982.
Shiny became the national champion in the 800 meters a year before the Asian Games in Delhi. After that and until she announced her retirement, she won the event every time she did the course on the national scene.
A veteran of four Olympics and three Asian Games, Shiny has some great moments to cherish, particularly the experience in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, where she became the first woman from India to enter the semi-final of an Olympic event. And more importantly, she was part of the relay squad which set the Asian record there and again when it improved upon that mark during the World Championship in Rome in 1987.
Shiny married swimmer Wilson Cherian in December 1988.
One of her greatest achievements was that she was running even faster after the birth of her child and she set a new record of 1:59.85 in the 800m race at the 1995 South Asian Federation (SAF) Games in Chennai.
Although she didn’t win any medals at any of the four Olympics, she and P.T. Usha powered India to an unexpected Women’s 4X400 relay final at the 1984 Games. She was also the captain of the Indian Contingent at the 1992 Games. She has also represented India in three Asian Games and has won a Gold, 2 Silvers, and a Bronze. In the Asian Track and Field meets, she has won 7 Gold Medals, 6 Silver Medals, and 2 Bronze Medals. She represented India more than 75 Times.
She is the first Indian woman athlete to reach the semi-finals of the Olympics in women’s 800m. She was the first Indian woman captain and flag bearer for Indian Contingent for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
She received the Arjuna Award in 1984. She was conferred Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award in 1998. She was honored with the Birla Award in 1998.
–Staff Reporter
