Athletics legends Jegathesan, Rajamani feted as they turn 80

Free Malaysia Today

Dr M Jegathesan and M Rajamani gather with old friends and sporting icons to reminisce about Malaysia’s golden age of track and field.  Read More: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2023/11/08/athletics-greats-jega-rajamani-celebrate-80th-birthday-with-sporting-icons/   Free Malaysia Today is an independent, bi-lingual news portal with a focus on Malaysian current affairs.    Subscribe to our channel - http://bit.ly/2Qo08ry   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check us out at https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com Follow FMT on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2Rn6xEV Follow FMT on Dailymotion: https://bit.ly/2WGITHM Follow FMT on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2OCwH8a  Follow FMT on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2OKJbc6 Follow FMT on TikTok : https://bit.ly/3cpbWKK Follow FMT Telegram - https://bit.ly/2VUfOrv Follow FMT LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/3B1e8lN Follow FMT Lifestyle on Instagram: https://bit.ly/39dBDbe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download FMT News App: Google Play – http://bit.ly/2YSuV46 App Store – https://apple.co/2HNH7gZ Huawei AppGallery - https://bit.ly/2D2OpNP  #FMTNews #ManiJegathesan #MRajamani #Athletics

Transcript

00:00 National sporting legends Dr. Mani Jayakadesan and M. Rajamani beamed with joy as they were

00:06 honored with a joint 80th birthday celebration recently.

00:11 Born in Perak nine days apart in November 1943, the track stars were faded by a host

00:16 of household names in sports.

00:19 Among them were former Olympic Council of Malaysia President Tunku Imran Tuangu Jafar,

00:24 ex-sprinter Shahruddin Ali, football's Namkar Atu, hockey's Steven Van Huizen, and badminton's

00:30 James Selvaraj.

00:31 Anything that we are today is a sum total of everything that we experienced, we learned

00:38 from people, we acquired and so on and so forth.

00:41 I can think no less than 30 people who contributed to my efforts.

00:47 It is a great honor to have this celebration today with so many of you who have come here

01:03 to be with Tan Sri and me on this day.

01:09 Thank you very much and it's one event that I will never forget in my whole life.

01:14 Jeyga says he owed his success to the unstinting support of his family, teachers, coaches,

01:20 and even former Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.

01:23 I was extremely lucky as mentioned by Dr. Karun earlier that my family came from a sporting

01:29 background.

01:30 Never at any stage did our family say, "Look, don't waste your time."

01:34 We didn't have to go through that because our family supported this and that was a great

01:39 start and we could do this.

01:42 Known as the Flying Doctor, Jeyga represented the country in all three Olympiads in the

01:46 1960s.

01:47 In 1968, he became the first Malaysian athlete to qualify for the semifinals in the 200-meter

01:54 sprint in Mexico.

01:56 He also excelled in the field of medicine and served as the Institute for Medical Research

02:00 Director and the Deputy Health Director General.

02:04 Rajamani spoke fondly of how her father roped in coach R. Supia who nurtured her into a

02:09 top-class athlete.

02:10 After my Form 5, my hubby was sleeping.

02:14 My father couldn't take it anymore.

02:17 So he went to the field, spoke to Mr. R. Supia, brought him to the house and told him this,

02:26 "I don't want to see my daughter in the house between four to seven.

02:31 Do what you want with her, but I don't want her in the house."

02:35 Six months after training with Supia, Rajamani qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

02:41 The Queen of Speed went on to become a seven-time Southeast Asian Peninsula Games gold medalist

02:47 and the first female athlete from Malaysia to bag gold at the 1966 Bangkok Asian Games,

02:53 winning the 400 meters in 56.3 seconds.

02:57 Former Athletics International, Karuselvaratnam, who organized the celebration, expressed sheer

03:02 admiration for the two iconic figures.

03:05 On behalf of everyone here this evening, may I say how proud we are to honor legends like

03:15 you, both of you, for the glory you brought, the contributions that you gave and the achievements

03:23 that you attained during the period of amateurism through sheer desire and passion.

03:33 Danish Rajareza and Tan Chin Tung, FMT News.

03:36 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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