Asian track queen calls for athletes to work together
Useful Links
» A new way to read online, exact replica of your daily and magazine
» For all you tweety fans out there!
» Allows you to find only those news from any date you choose!
» Search any news/ articles by author/ category/ date/ keyword
KATHMANDU, AUG 07 -
Quick scan at Malaysian athletic history reveals the 60’s and 70’s as the golden era of the sport. The athletic scene mostly evolved around seven names, and one of them was Malivaganam Rajamani. Nicknamed the “The Queen of Tracks” by the Malaysian Olympic Committee, she won seven international gold medals in her short international stint from 1964 to 1968, most of them in a record time, and in the process she also went on to become the first Malaysian woman to strike gold at the Asian Games in 1966.
Dato M. Rajamani as she is known is of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. She is 67 now and was in Kathmandu last week after her visit to Mt. Kailash. For an outsider, she, by no means, looks likes the woman who brought the greatest glory to Malaysia. In traditional Tamil attire, she humbly spoke about the difficulties she faced during her days on the track, the horror of missing the 1968 Mexico Olympics after being struck by lightening while training, and the mental trauma she underwent after discovering a tumour below her right ear.
“I have survived such horrific incidents just to travel to Mt. Kailash,” she said, thanking Lord Shiva for keeping her in good shape to travel to the mountain. “I had difficulties going up the mountain but I somehow managed to overcome them with the help of encouraging words from my fellow travellers.”
Rajamani was born to a conservative family in the small town of Tapah in 1943, but she fought traditional gender barriers and most importantly racial favouritism to become the greatest athlete of the country. She was later inducted in the Malaysian Hall of Fame in 2004.
Back in the 60’s, the sporting facilities in Malaysia were not as it now. Today, Malaysia has arguably the best sporting infrastructure in Asia with international tournaments taking place on a regular basis. She recalled training without proper equipment and managing food and accommodation on a tight budget. “Athletes are now paid handsomely and are kept in academies. In our time it was different; we had to manage everything,” she said, adding, “It is a good sign for athletes to prosper but then they are being pampered too much.”
Apart from China and Japan, the rest of Asia, she believes, has lagged behind in international sports mainly because of the inferior physical built. She says Asians should focus only on those disciplines that are suitable for their built instead of trying out everything. “This saves both money and time.”
“Asians should help each other by sharing their expertise. For instance, if China is good at gymnastics, they should groom gymnasts from other nations. This is the only way we can beat Westerners.”
A great talker that she is, Rajamani can go on sharing her track experiences. One other interesting part of her life is when she had to call it a day. In one of her training sessions, before the 1968 Olympics, Rajamani along with a friend were struck by lightening. Her friend died and Rajamani was in a coma for 18 hours. She survived but her nervous system was in tatters and she suffered a temporary loss of memory. Try as she did, Rajamani could not regain her form. She missed out on the Olympics and announced her retirement. She then turned to coaching, especially school girls.
Her recent visit to Nepal was her third to the country. “I like coming to Nepal,” said the ‘Malaysian Track Queen,’ who was ready to speaks at length about Nepal until her husband interrupted the scene asking her to ready herself to go out.
Posted on: 2010-08-07 09:46
Post Your Comment