By Tony Mariadass
Poad’s the man for Badrul
If
there is one person who can claim credit for discovering sprint sensation Badrul Hisyam Abdul Manap it is coach Mohd
Poad Kassim. Afterall, Poad has coached Badrul snce he was 10.
But
the 46-year-old claims no such rights – he is merely confident he is the best
person to guide the 100m Malaysian record holder to greater heights.
Ever
since Badrul’s record breaking feat in the 100mm sprint at the Asean Schools
Games championship in Bandar Seri Begawan last month, it has had everybody
excited and suggesting various plans for him.
Badrul’s
timing of 10.29s in Brunei erased Watson Nyambek’s 17-year-old record timing of
10.30s.
“There
has been a lot of attention on Badrul and everyone is suggesting ideas for the
future of Badrul including he moves out from Tunku Mahkota Ismail Sports
Schools – SSTMI (Bandar Penawar, Johor) to go to Kuala Lumpur,” said Poad when
met in Merlimau last week when Badrul’s mother Rozinah Baba had a thansgiving
lunch at their home at Kampung Batu Gajah Pasir.
“Badrul
must be given the room to develop at his own pace and not rushed into things.
He is only 18-years-old and very much a kampong boy,” said the 46-year coach
who has been coaching Badrul since he was 10 years-old.
Badrul
was introduced to Poad by Badrul’s first coach Nuraziah Kassim, who spotted him
as a Standard One student at SK Batu Gagah, where she was a Bahasa Malaysia
teacher.
“There
has been a great deal of media and public attention and even politicians have
joined in to share the limelight.
“While
I am happy with recognition accorded to that Badrul, but we should not go
overboard. I am just afraid that Badrul
will be spolit, loose focus and his true potential not realised.”
Poad
said that the best place for Poad is continue to stay at SSTMI where he is a
pre-university student.
“If
anyone wants to assist they should assist SSTMI be equiped with better
facilites to become a state of art training centre. With minimum facilites we
have not only managed to produce Badrul, but also have Mohd Haiqal Hanafi,
Asnawai Hashim and Khairul Hafi Jantan (all members of the 4 X100m gold medal
winning team together with Badrul in Brunei) from the school and training under
me.”
Poad
said that are many more potential athletes in the school like Nazreen Esat Hafiz Che Hassan and
Muhammad Azam Masri to name two.
SSTMI
principal, Suhaimi Sun Abdullah, added that SSTMI should be allowed to grow and
be the nueclus to produce more athetes rather than cripple them after some
initially success.
Badrul
himself has been disturbed by all the attention and wants to be allowed to
carry on with his training the usual manner without much fuss.
“I
still have a long way to go and do not want to rush into anything. I want to take
things in my stride and Poad knows best for me,” said Badrul.
Suhaimi
cited an example when Badrul was handed over to the Singapore Sea Games
coaching team last year and he pulled a hamstring in training and had to
withdraw.
“I
know Badrul in and out. For starters he is not a strong or big boy for a
sprinter (1.6m and 55kg) and one needs to know his capability of handing the
load thrust on him. As much as we are trying to build him to become a stronger
athlete, it takes time and careful guidance,” said Poad.
Poad
said Badrul and the other athletes are like his own children.
“I
have taken care of them from young, had them stay in my house, fed them and
spent money for the training, travelling and accomodation expenses. I am not
complaining because I am doing it out of love for athletics and the athletes.
“As
far as Badrul is concerned, his parents were against him being involved in
athletics. Noraziah and me had to do a lot to coaxing to allow them for him to
continue in athletics.
“Infact,
three days before Badrul’s father (Abdul Manap) passed away, he called me to
his home, held my hands and told me that he was surrendering his son to me,
gave his blessing for Badrul to pursue his athletics career and told me to take
care of him and always guide him to remain humble and work hard for his
achievements.
“But
moves to rob Badrul from me now is not fair. I am willing to listen to other
coaches of their ideas to make him and other athletes under me better. But do
take them away from me now.
“I
will personally let them go when I know I cannot improve them any further or
when the time is right for them to move to another enviorment,” said the father
of seven children.
“I am
qualified coach specialising in sprints with sports science knowledge and have
been a coach since 1997 and am sure I am more than capable of handling Badrul
and the rest,” said Poad who holds the Malaysian Athletics Federation/ National
Sports Council Level 3 coaching certificate and attained Level Two in Sports
Science Level.
Poad
attained his teaching certificate from Tunku Ampuan Teachers’ Training College
in Kuantan after a two years course in 1996.
Poad,
who was an athete in jumps events during his schooling days at English College in
Johor Baru (now known as Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar), started off as a part-time coach
with the Malacca Schools Sport Council athletics programme before becoming their
fulltime coach from 1997-2013. He had also coached at the Malaysia Games in
2008, 2010 and 2014.
He was the national schools athletics
coach for the international Little Athletics championship in Australia in 2011,
2012 and 2013.
Other coaching stints included the 1st
Asian Schools Track and Field championship in 2013, SIPMA (Malaysian Education
Institution Sports) in 2013, Asean Schools Games in Philippines in 2014 and
this year in Brunei and to the World Youth championship in Columbia this year.
Poad said that he learnt a great deal
when he attended Level 3 coaching course under MAF technical director, Robert
Ballard.
“Ballard is partly responsible for Badrul
rise because it was what I learnt from him and the course that I applied to see
Badrul improve this year.
“I also gain information from the internet
and apply any latest methods which are available for training. I also use my
overseas coaching stints to learn from other coaches and observe other
athletes. I gained quite a bit at the World Youth championship where some of
the best youth and coaches were present.
“I am always learning from whatever
source available and believe I can impart these acquired knowledge to Badrul
and the rest to reach higher heights.”
Indeed, Poad has come a long way with his
hard work and determination. And to take Badrul away from him and SSTMI is
indeed not right.
Let common sense prevail and the right
thing be done in the interest of Badrul and the other potential athletes in
SSTMI.
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