By
Tony Mariadass
Pictures
by: Azneal Ishak
In
an age where hardly anyone does anything for free, especially in the field of
sports, Olympian Sabapathy Sinnayah, has tirelessly with a few fellow coaches
out of sheer passion been coaching about 30 athletes for free in Seremban for
the last six years.
Sabapathy,
who turned 68 on November 30, represented Malaysia in the 1972 Munich Olympics
as a member of the 4 X 100m and 4 X400m relay team, started his athletics
training programme on Sundays at the Tamil School in Lobak and has since moved
to his alma mater St Paul’s Institution has the programme gained popularity.
Together
with coaches R. Mogan (former national walker), P. Tamilselve (former Penang
athlete) and S. Segamani, they diligently train about 30 athletes for two hours
starting from 8am every Sunday. On week days many of the athletes are part of
the State schools programme at SMK Bukit Mewah where Mogan is coach under NS
Negri Sports Council.
 |
| Setting it for training...from left coaches walks coach R. Mogan, S. Segamani and Sabapathy sets up equipment before training. |
“I
started this programme as I wanted to give something back to the sport.
Although I am late starter at athletics, it has grown to be my passion,” said
Sabapathy.
Sabapathy’s
desire to give back something to the sport probably stems from the fact that he
was introduced to the sport by man who took him under his wings – Mubarak Ahmad
-
a senior police officer in the 50s and a former Malayan sprinter and president
of FMAAU (predecessor of MAAU and now MAF).
Mubarak was the father of late Olympian hurdler Ishtiaq Mubarak.
Sabapathy lost his
mother, Letchumy, not even knowing her as a one-year-old. It was then Sabapathy
was brought up by Ishtiaq’s parents, with whom the former’s father was working
for as a caretaker at their home.
“I owe my athletics
career to Ishtiaq’s father Mubarak. I was brought up by their family until the
age of eight in Seremban before he was transferred to Selangor. Only then did I
went to live with my father in Lobak.
“Although I grew up
with Ishtiaq, I was not good at athletics. I left school after Form Five in
1965 and was looking for a job. After two years in search for a job in vain, I
decided to contact Mubarak to assist me to get a job in Selangor.
“Mubarak asked me to
come to Selangor and I stayed in his house again and used to follow Isthiaq for
his athletics training at the Police Depot. It was then that Mubarak asked me to
train with Isthiaq and started to take a liking for the sport. I joined the
Jets Athletics Club and that was the beginning of athletics career.
“With the assistance
of Mubarak, I also managed to get a job with Tenaga Nasional (then Lembaga
Letrik Negara – LLN) where I worked for 12 years. I started to represent
Selangor in the 200m, 400m and relay team before going on to represent the
nation.”
Sabapathy said the
coaches in his programme all come on a voluntary basis for the love of
athletics.
“I am indeed grateful
to them for having managed this programme for the last six years.
“We source for
donations and sponsors to get equipment for training and also running shoes and
attire for the athletes.
“Among the sponsors
who have been kind to us include Datuk James Selvaraj (Bata), Datuk Malek Noor (UFL), SPI who let us use the field for
training for free IR N. Ramamurthi who assisted to get some funding from the
Education Welfare Research Foundation(EWRF) and a few
personal friends. But we certainly
could do with more assistance.”
The children bring their own drinks and
certainly a drink sponsor and even some nutrition sponsorship will assist them
in a long way.
Nestle hearing about the
plight of the club is already looking into assisting them with their
nutritional drinks during their training sessions.
Sabapathy said only late last year they
have registered themselves as an athletics club – Falcon Athletic Club – with
the Sports Commissioner’s office.
Asked why he choose the name Falcon for the club, he simply replied: “Falcons are the
fasted moving creature in the face of earth.
Falcons have thin, tapered wings, which
enable them to fly at high speed and to change direction rapidly and have been
recorded diving at speeds of 200 miles per hour (320 km/h).
“We hope as a registered club now, we
will get some assistance especially from sponsors,” said Sabapathy the
president of the newly formed club.
“There are many talented athletes in the
programme who have the potential to make a name for themselves. I have athletes
coming from as far as Port Dickson. Some athletes I had personally gone to
schools nearby to ask them to come and join the programme, while many have come
on their own after hearing about the programme.
“Parents have taken a keen interest in
the programme, especially mothers who bring their children for the programme
and wait here before taking them home,” said the father of three daughters and
two grandchildren.
The programme has several senior boys
who have competed in the Malaysia Games and among them are R. Eswaran (20Km
walk), R. Thevan (long distance runner) and R. Premkumar (walks).
But it is the development programme
which has attracted many athletes many of them who are already representing
their respective schools and at the district level.
Sabapathy also has a programme for
grassroots development of athletes from the age of seven to ten, many of whom
who have tremendous potential to make the grade soon.
Indeed, Sabapathy has got something good
going and if only more ex-athletes are passionate like him and assist in the
development of sports, many more athletes will be discovered.
Sabapathy made his
debut for the nation at the 1970 Bangkok Asian Games as member of the 4 X 400m
relay squad, but although the team won the bronze, he did not run as he was
relegated to a reserve. Then in the Kuala Lumpur 1971 Seap Games he had the
misfortune of pulling a muscle in the 100m race and had to withdraw from the
relay squad.
It was only at the
1973 Singapore Seap Games that Sabapathy finally tasted glory when the 4 X 400m
quartet comprising P.L.B. S. Payadesa, Harun Rashid, Hassan Omar and himself
won the gold medal in 3:15.4.
Sabapathy also won a
silver in the 200m clocking 22.3 to finish behind Thailand’s A. Ratanpol (21.6).
At the 1975 Bangkok
Seap, Sabapathy won two bronzes medals - in the 4 X 200m running with Peyadesa,
Ramli Ahmad and Zainuddin Wahab in a time of 1:26.5 and the 4 X 400m (Marariah
Naidu, Peyadesa, Muthiah Dattaya and Sabapathy). The 4 X 200m was won by Thai
quartet of Boontud Somsakdi, Suchart Jaesuraparp, Ratanapol and Paratanavong
Sayun in 1:25.0 while Singapore’s quartet of C. Kunalan, Quah Kim Tiong and Yeo
Kian Chye won silver (1.25.9). In the 4 X 400m it was Singapore who won the
gold.
For the 1972 Munich Olympics, Sabapathy
trained in US and Germany with his relay mates Peyadesa, Hassan and T. Krishnan
who had a finally ranking of sixth for the time of 3:13.51.
After his athletic career, Sabapathy
was the Federal Territory coach from 1985-1996, Selangor Sports Council
development coach from 1997 to 2006 and Federal Territory chief coach for a
year with the Sukan Teras programme.
Sabapathy was an executive with Ex-National Athlete Foundation (YAKEB) from 2009 till two months ago.
Although currently
without a job, Sabapathy has not shirked on his passion to continue to assist
the athletics community in Seremban.
Sabapathy is indeed a
rare gem in the athletics community.
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