CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development Udayanidhi Stalin lauded the retired ICF athlete K Subramanian (86), who won four gold medals in the recently concluded Asian Masters Athletics Championships, which is a record of sorts.

Subramanian has won these four gold medals in high jump, long jump, triple jump and javelin throw in the competition, an ICF release here on Friday said.

Appreciating the achievement of octogenarian athlete Udyanidhi Stalin has posted in a social media handle saying "My hearty Congratulations to Chennai's K.Subramaniam for clinching FOUR Gold Medals in the 22nd Asian Masters Athletics Meet held at Tarlac, Philippines. The octogenarian has proved that age is no deterrent to achieving big in sports. The Government of Tamil Nadu takes pride in the senior athlete's victory. Let his stellar performance continue in future tournaments".

Subramanian who retired from Railway services as senior section engineer at ICF in 1996 was also in charge of coaching young new generation railway athletes for about 27 years in various disciplines and most of his students have also participated and won medals in the inter-railway competitions.

In the Asian Masters Athletics Championships, there were various groups according to their age, such as 71-75, 76-80, 81-85, 86-90 and so on.

Accordingly Subramanian has participated in the age group of 86-90 and has won these medals at his ripe age.