Legendary athletics coach K P Thomas has been recommended for this year’s Dronacharya Award (lifetime achievement). A native of Thodupuzha, the 68-year old is among the five coaches chosen by an expert committee headed by former hockey Olympian Ashok Kumar. Once the Sports Ministry ratifies the recommendations, Thomas ‘Mash’, as he is popularly known, will become the fourth Keralite to win the nation’s highest award for coaches, after O M Nambiar, A K Kutty and Bobby George. He had shaped the careers of the likes of Anju Bobby George, Shiny Wilson and Joseph Abraham.