After 30 years three best 800m runners of the 80s, B. Rajkumar, R. Haridas and Samsom Vallabouy, met up for a nostalgic reunion in Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB) over the weekend recently.
The
trio, together with three other Perak state runners – middle-distance runner
David Anthony, Victor Rayapan - long distance runner (1,500m and 5,00m), and
hurdler Tamil Chelvam (400m hurdles), who joined the reunion together with
former athlete, coach and administrator, M. Latchumanan, at Rajkumar’s chalet
resort in KKB.
Tamil
is currently the president of the Perak Masters Athletics Association (PMAA),
Samson the vice-president and Latchumanan the secretary.
The KKB reunion- from left to right Victor Rayapan Tamil Chelvam M. Latchumanan B. Rajkumar David Anthony R. Haridas and Samson Vallabuoy
“This
is a rare gathering after 30 years as we spent time reminiscing the glorious
days when middle distance running was so keenly competed and of a high
standard. We were a feared lot in the region” said the 58-year-old Haridas, 58, who won the AFT bronze
medal in the 800m in 1987 and was a national athlete from 1982 to 1989.
“It
was great to spend a day talking about the good old days and catching up with
each other’s progress in life.”
All
three who had former national middle distance coach, A. Trapadi, handle them,
also made a call to him to inform him of their reunion.
Trapadi
spoke to all three of them and so happy that the three had kept in touch and
wished them all well.
In a
text message sent to Rajkumar after the phone call, Trapadi wrote: “Raj, I feel
very happy to see all three of you together. Keep the friendship for life. I am
proud of you all being successful in athletics and in your chosen career. My
regards to both of them. Hope to meet all of you sometime.”
“We
will have another gathering soon and will definitely have our coach Trapadi
present,” said Rajkumar.
The top 800m runners of the 80s from left Haridas, Rajkumar and Samson
David Anthony said: “This is indeed a rare honour to be among three legends of middle distance runners.
“I
used to compete against them in local and State meets and became good friends. But I
left after my athletics career to work in Singapore for almost a decade.
“I
returned to my hometown in Ipoh after that, but while I meet the others in Ipoh regularly, this is
this first time I am meeting Rajkumar, Haridas and Samson together. It was
simply great to meet them after all these years and we had a lot of catching up
to do.
“I
will always remember this day forever.”
While
reminiscing the good old times, all of them unanimously decided they want to
give back to the sports and groom middle and long distance runners.
“We
have decided that we want to organise a middle-distance runners Kem Bakat
(Talent Camp) to select top athletes in view of setting up a permanent training
centre,” said Rajkumar the 55-year-old, former Asian champion, who broke the
national men’s 800m record by clocking 1:47.37 to win the gold medal in the
Asian Track and Field (ATF) Championships in Jakarta in 1985 and is holds the
current national record after 35 years.
“This is the fourth time I am
offering to assist to set up a training centre in Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB) and I
hope this time around MAF will respond and work with us,” said Rajkumar, who
was born and bred in this small, quiet and sleepy town.
“KKB is scenic and quiet place ideal for training, has all the
facilities and the hilly terrain here is ideal for middle distance training.
After all, I was spotted and trained here by coach Trapadi and did well for a
small town boy.
“Trapadi, the former national coach is retired now and will be our
technical advisor and we have another two IAAF certified coaches to assist,
besides all of us, to groom the budding athletes.”
Rajkumar first offered his services and his hostel accommodation, when
he revived and organised road relay the inaugural KKB 21km Road Relay in 2016.
He then offered his services again last year, to assist national middle distance
runner Savinder Kaur, upon her return from Kenya, where she had gone for a
five-week training stint after securing enough funds.
Then, Rajkumar and two other former national
athletes Samret Singh (hammer thrower) and Papu Ignatius (long distance runner
and former national coach), who shone in the golden days of Malaysian
athletics, expressed their interest to set up grassroots centres in KKB, Kuala
Lumpur and Penang respectively, and again there was no response from MAF or the
National Sports Council (NSC).
“I don’t know why, but athletics officials at
national or state are not keen to take up our offer to assist and give back to
the sports. I have made offer in my State in Perak, but it has fallen deaf
ears,” said the 54-year Samson who has competed set the Sea Games record in
1991 in his second Games and has experience of competing at the 1990
Commonwealth Games in Auckland, World championship in Tokyo in 1991 and Asian
Track and Field championship (ATF) in 1989 and 1991.
“I now assist young athletes through programmes
organised by my club - Panthers Athletics Club headed by former national coach
K. Jayabalan in Ipoh - and also the PMAA.
“But KKB is an ideal place to set up the training
centre and we have decided we will do hope we can get some assistance or collaboration from the Malaysian
Athletics Federation (MAF), National Sports Council (NSC) or even Perak AA MAF.”
Samson who is former national athlete from 1984 to
1991, who is married to former national middle distance star, Josephine Mary, said
that although he is based in Ipoh, he is doing some work around KKB and will be
staying at least three days a week in KKB.
“Josephine is also keen to assist in the training
camp, as she will be here with me too,” said Samson, whose 20-year daughter
Shereen is also a national middle distance runner who is currently undergoing her four-year degree
in Physical Education at the Winona State University (WSU), Minnesota.
Haridas, who is running a sports shop business for
the last 25 years, said he was prepared to come to KKB a few days each week to
assist in the training centre.
“I am a self-trained athlete from Mentakab, who
started running around on a beaten-up 200m track in the estates. I wasted two
years (from 17-years-old to 19) running in long distance events (1,500m and
5,000m),” recalled Haridas.
“Finally, when I tired the 800m for the first time
at the Pahang Open meet, I broke the state record and then on went to become a
national athlete, where I finally had a coach in Trapadi,” said Haridas.
“Many a talent, especially in middle distance where
we find very few athletes these days, have not been discovered or not nurtured
to become champions. This is where we hope to play a role and regain the
glorious days of middle-distance runners like us,” said Haridas who is known of
playing the ‘rabbit’ at the ATF in Jakarta in 1985, where Rajkumar not only won
the race, but in record time.
Recalling the race strategy, Haridas said: “Both of
us were sub 1:50 runners and had a chance to win. But team manager Dr M.
Jegathesan felt that we needed a race strategic to ensure we won the gold medal
and felt that Rakjumar had a better chance to win the race. He asked me to run
a consistent run to time 50.5 sec for the first 400m to pull the other
potential winners in the race.
“I was not at all disappointed with the decision
because it was decision made for Malaysia to win the gold and I am glad that I
played the role.”
Haridas finished the race fourth and went to win
the bronze in the following ATF meet 1987.
Rajkumar and his
mates, hopes that the MAF, president, Datuk S.M. Muthu, NSC or even Perak AA,
will take up his offer to set up a training centre in KKB.
Rajkumar said if
the offer is not taken up or support given by the relevant parties, he is just
going to look for one or two potential athletes and train them on his own with
the hope to make the champions one day.
Ends.
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