By Tony Mariadass
Get the base right
With Malaysian athletics in decline over the past two decades, three former track and field stars have
come forward to offer their help to revive the sport.
Three former national athletes Papu
Ignatius, Samret Singh and B. Rajkumar, are all prepared to setup grassroots
athletics centres in Penang, Kuala Kubu Baru (KKB) and Kuala Lumpur
respectively.
Infact,
middle-distance runner B.
Rajkumar, who won the men’s 800m at the 1985 Asian Track and Field championship
in Jakarta as a 22-year-old with a winning time of 1:47.37s and still remains a
national record, already has a group of youngsters he trains in his hometown KKB.
Former
national hammer thrower, Samret Singh, gold medal winner at the 1985 and 1989 SEA Games, has
group of youngsters wanting to take up the event, but does not have a place to
train them.
Papu, a former national long distance
athlete from Perak who represented Malaysia in the 5,000m at the South-East
Asian Games in Rangoon in 1969, said efforts must be done to ensure that there
is a wide base for budding athletes to come and train, if Malaysian athletes is
to improve.
“It is no rocket science for any sports
to develop, there must a strong foundation at the grassroots, especially for
schoolchildren,” said Papu who during this span, participated
in the 800m, 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m races, and his record of 15:10.2s for
the 5,000m set in 1968 still stands as the Perak state record.
“It is about time that MAF and the
State AAs with the assistance of either the National Sports Council or the
State Council and local authorities, set up a dedicated centres in every state
and maybe even in smaller districts, where athletes, coaches and teachers who
are retired or still active but looking for a platform to render their services,
can come together to coach any young athletes looking to be coached. Even
parents can forward to assist.” said Papu who took up coaching after he retired
as an athlete in 1970.
His coaching assignments included
conditioning of national athletes in Perth, Australia, in preparation for the
Asian Track and Field (ATF) championships in 1983, and again in Kiel, Germany,
in 1985 and has coached athletes for the biennial South-East Asian Games five
times in a row from 1983, and coached the ATF teams in l983, 1985, 1989 and
1993.
Papu added the centres should have
basic facilities and should be maintained by the local city or town council.
“I am not looking for positions, but
merely want to impart my knowledge while I still can and help young budding
athletes. And there are many former athletes and coaches out there looking for
a platform to render their services,” said former Penang AAA coaching committee
chairman who had set up various coaching centres in the state then.
Papu said centres should be what the
Kampong Pandan Complex in Kuala Lumpur used to be, where anyone can come and
train and coach.
Rajkumar, on the other hand, already has a group of athletes under
him, but wants to expand to make KKB a
training hub for middle distance athletes.
After all, Rajkumar, born and bred in KKB had all his foundation
laid in this small town by his coach A. Tripadi who is also from KKB.
Rajkumar is passionate about athletics and wanting to give back to
the sports realised his dream of reviving road relay races when he organised the
inaugural Merdeka Kuala Kubu Baru (KKB) 21km road relay race in 2016 and held
it for a second year the following year. But lack of support from sponsors, MAF
and State Association, he had to shelf it last year.
He is trying to relaunch it this year again, but till now has been
getting poor response to support the event although it was a hit the two years and
had close to 100 teams competing, mainly from schools and youth.
“It a good event, but sadly did not get enough support to carry
on. I am not giving up and will continue to work hard to organise the event
again.”
However, he said the first two events was organised with some
support from Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) through Move Malaysia programme,
Milo, 100Plus, Bata, Youth on Unity, individual sponsors and his own funds.
Rajkumar said it was through this two Road Relay events he managed
to get a pool of athletes from KKB to train under him.
“There is a lot of room to improve in training these athletes,
especially to train on a more regular basis and academy for middle distance
runners is my dream.
“I have hostel facilities here, the training surrounding in KKB is
conducive for middle distance runners, new track is being laid at the Stadium
here and will be ready in a few months and above all I have the expertise –
besides Tripadi, who has an IAAF coaching certificate, and who helped me win gold
in the ATF meet 34 years ago, there are two more IAAF certified coaches here.”
Rajkumar,
recently even offered to train national middle distance runner Savinder Kaur who had
gone to train in Kenya for a five-weeks recently
The 22-year-old is on a mission to
qualify for the 800m in the Philippines SEA Games in December, and needs to
clock 2:09.05 to make the cut. Her personal best is 2:11.95, but she fell short
of expectations at the last Games in Kuala Lumpur when she posted 2:16.17 to
finish fifth.
I felt sorry for Savinder as she had
to use her own pocket money of RM8,000 to train for five weeks in Kenya.
“Training for five weeks in Kenya
won’t help her much as she needs a long-term training programme to improve her
personal best,” said Rajkumar.
“I invited Savinder to train with us
at the Kuala Kubu Baru track but no one has got back to me.”
Rajkumar hoped that MAF helmed by
newly elected Datuk S.M. Muthu will take up his offer to set up a centre in
KKB.
“I am prepared to discuss my plans
for a centre in KKB and hopefully MAF will be able to assist me in some way to
manage the centre.”
Samret, on the other hand has some
plans which he is keeping under wrap temporarily to set up a centre for throws.
“I hope MAF of the State AA can talk
to me to set up this centre because I already have a pool of athletes who are
interested,” said Samret who late father was also an exemplary athlete who a
national hammer thrower who was equally good at discus and shot putt in the 60s
and 70s.
The track has been laid and it is out
to MAF and the State AAs to start the race and finish it to reap the rewards.
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