An Athletics Marvel That May Never Happen Again

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(Clockwise from top left) M Jegathesan, M Rajamani, Nashatar Singh, Karu Selvaratnam, L Pushpanathan, M Dattaya, Asir Victor and Semret Singh are among the athletics greats who will honoured at the event next Saturday.IPOH: It will be pure theatre when 21 Perak athletics greats from the 1960s and 70s are honoured as legends here on July 9.
The celebration of the national heroes from the glorious era of Malaysian athletics involves 12 living marquee names and nine others who have died.
Their history is a rich tapestry of sporting life that to them was a human thrill ride, a vehicle of expression, loyalty to sport and duty to the nation.
As athletes, coaches and administrators, they turned obstacles into opportunities and found the triumphs we all seek.
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The lords of track and field were born to run, jump and throw and they showed what true grit really meant.
Youth and sports minister Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who will grace the occasion, said the icons helped in building a national sentiment in which people from varied ethnicities felt connected to a common sense of purpose and pride.
He said the power of their passion and perseverance, and the glory they brought to the country will always resonate with sports fans.
“A Celebration of Perak’s Track and Field Legends”, at the Royal Ipoh Club, will spotlight 60s track phenoms, M Jegathesan and M Rajamani, who are both Olympians and Malaysia’s first sportsman and sportswoman of the year in 1967.
They will be joined by four other Olympians, Nashatar Singh Sidhu (javelin), Karu Selvaratnam (400m and 400m hurdles), Junaidah Aman (400m) and S Sivaraman (400m).
Malaysia’s oldest coaches K Jayabalan and Tan Choo Mong, will be in the limelight too, for their special blend of passion and persistence.
The others are former Malaysia Athletics Federation president and state sprinter, Karim Ibrahim, “turbo grandpa”’ L Pushpanathan, who is still running the 100m and 200m at the age of 93, and 1961 SEAP Games (now SEA Games) javelin gold medallist, Ng Kar Liew, who has been a fruit seller for about 25 years.
1960s javelin star Ng Kar Liew made headlines in 2017, saying he simply wanted recognition, not money.“It is also a time not only to say our goodbyes but to apologise to nine other Perak greats who have passed away. Sorry, gentlemen, that we left it too late to celebrate your greatness,” organising chairman Danny Sritharan said.
Among the late greats who will be honoured posthumously are Olympians Asir Victor (400m) and Shamsuddin Jaafar (400m), who had also served as national athletics coach for the Asian Games in 1970, 1974 and in 1978.
The others are hammer champions, Genda Singh and his son Semret, ex-national barefoot distance runner A Kandiah, sprinter V Vijiaretnam, and coaches Sangaran Kutty Nayar, R Suppiah and Aloysius Ong Yoon Pheng.
Organising chairman Danny Sritharan is all smiles as it is a sold-out event to honour the past athletics heroes from Perak.Sritharan had together with a group of former state and national athletes organised the event following an FMT story in April on forgotten trackmaster Suppiah who made accidental runners into Olympians.
Suppiah breathed his last in May and his death was followed by that of Ong three weeks later.
Firing the starting gun on the biggest gathering of past athletics stars in Perak, Sritharan told his team: “A man is made by his history and without the memories, life’s anchor is gone.”
‘Most things involving gathering big name sports personalities don’t happen. This one did,” he said yesterday as he announced a sold-out event.
In the mix are special guests, football marvel M Karathu and hockey icon R Yogeswaran, state and national athletes from different eras, as well as veteran sportswriters.
Niza Haniz Mustapha, a key driver of the event, said the nation should guard sporting memories jealously and never let them go.
Niza Haniz Mustapha posing with the late R Suppiah whose story in FMT about a forgotten coach prompted a group to organise the celebration of Perak’s track and field icons from the 1960s and 70s.“Our sports heroes deserve to have their praises sung while they are still alive and events like this will motivate and create interest in the development of sports in the country,” said Niza, whose foundation in 400m hurdles was laid by Suppiah.
He said sports bodies in other states should consider replicating the event as sport was the stage for human drama, “one on which we gather to celebrate achievement, sacrifice and teamwork”.
“Who knows, there might also be a professionally managed sports museum one day and roads might be named after great coaches and Olympians,” he added.
“A Celebration of Perak’s Track and Field Legends” is not a fund-raiser and is hosted by Young Talent Track & Field (YTTF), a grassroots organisation dedicated to training children below the age of 12 and young disabled people.
The event is supported by the Perak Athletics Association, Paralympic Council of Malaysia, and Malaysia Olympians Association.
YTTF’s programmes are reliant on sponsorship and the pilot project is scheduled for August in Ipoh. - FMT

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