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Ekambaram Kaunakaran (born 6 June 1954) is an Indian weightlifter First Indian to win the Gold medal in weightlifting. He was Arjuna award in 1979 by the Government of India.

Early life
Karunakaran born in Egattur, Thiruvallur, Tamil Nadu, India to Ekambaram and karupaiammal.karunakaran did his Schooling from kadambathur Government higher secondary school and then took up employment with Southern railways in Chennai. Initially interested in kabaddi,Karunakaran changed his sports career and took to weightlifting to gain both strength and power. He took up Weightlifting at the age of 17 and grew up in the iron sport in and around madras. It was an understandable ambition as he was very thin and could not bear the taunts of his friends who used to call him ‘a bag of bones’. Despite the lack of facilities in his village Karunakaran was able to record substantial improvement in his physique .Weightlifting indeed had done wonders with him. And he had barely crossed at this stage.

Career
At the 1978 Commonwealth Games, Karunakaran won the gold medal in the 52 kg category, with 95 kg snatch, and 110 kg clean and jerk lifts, totalling 205 kg. His lift of 110 kg in the jerk, set a new games record Ekambaram Karunakaran is a Former Indian Sports Person who has the distinction of being the first to win a gold Medal in Weightlifting for India in an International competition with a record.This was in the Commonwealth games in Edmonton,Canada in 1978. This was one medal, which Karunakaran cherished in a career spanning over a decade.He is the recipient of India’s precious sporting honour,the Arjuna Award for the year 1978-79.He was an instant success at the national level ,winning the 52kg class from 1978 to 1982 among some very stiff competition .He won the InterRailway Championship title  seven times consecutively since 1978. His international career too began almost simultaneously, the gold Medal with an aggregate of 205kgs(snatch95,jerk110) in Edmonton’s Northern Alberto Jubilee Auditorium in 1978 giving him a very start to his career .Two years later he won another Gold at the Commonwealth weightlifting Championship and broke the 6 international record at Cardiff,U.K.Thereafter he took part in competitions in New Zealand and the commonwealth Games in Brisbane,Australia.It was he who carried the Indian Tricolor at Brisbane.

He participated in the 1980 Moscow Olympics to perform according to the expectations as he injured himself while doing 95kgs in his second snatch attempt. At the Asian level he won a Silver and bronze in the Asian Championships in Nagoya in 1981.This was followed by a Silver Medal in the Pakistan National Games the same year.Karunakaran captained the Indian Weightlifting squad to the World Railways Meet in Bulgaria in 1984 where he won a Bronze.

Karunakaran holds a diploma in coaching from the National Institute of Sports in Patiala and has coached the Southern Railway,the Indian Railways and finally the national teams. He Accompanied Indian Weightlifting Team as Manager at the SAF Games held at Islamabad in 1989.An ArjunaAward winner in 1978-79, he was feted by the Sports Journalist Association of TamilNadu during 1981-82. He worked as a Coach for Asian Games at Hiroshima Asian games,Japan in 1994.Another feather was added to his cap when he was honored as the Best coach in 1995.

In 2009, he represented as a coach in Youth world weightlifting championship held at changmai,Bangkok and qualified for juniorWorldCup(First time in Indian History) and in 2010 he worked as a coach in Asian Youth Olympic qualification, 17th Asian junior Women & 24th Asian Junior Men Weightlifting championships and qualified for juniorWorldCup and the team got the Silver medal. In 2010 he represented as a coach in Commonwealth weightlifting championship held at Penang, Malaysia.