Malaysia’s grooviest man

We have the usual nerds and jocks, but the most admired must be the groovies, those who are both good academically and at sports. In Malaysia, a hard act to follow is Datuk Dr M “The Flying Doctor” Jegathesan, 63. Not only is he a medical doctor and recently elected chairman of the Olympic Council of Asia’s (OCA) Medical Committee, the first Malaysian to head an OCA committee in 32 years, but in his heydays, he was an Asian-class sprinter as well. The fastest man in Asia in the 60s, he was the leading person in the Golden Era of Malaysian Athletics in the 60s, culminating in the 100-200 sprint double at the 1966 Asian Games. That year, he was named Olahragawan Negara. He is still the only Malaysian sprinter to reach the semifinals of the Olympics (1964 and 1968).

In 1967, he got his MBBS degree from Singapore. Then it’s back to the track, training for the Mexico Olympics.

That should prove to us all that you can find time for anything.

His 100m national record was only broken after more than 20 years by flying Dayak Watson Nyambek.

Not surprisingly, his parents are very supportive of his involvement in sport as his father, N.M. Vasagam of Sri Lanka was actively involved in the MAAU Championship, also his brothers, M. V. Singam, Balakrishnan and Harichandra.

In addition, he’s also the honorary medical advisor to the Commonwealth Games Federation and a member of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) Medical Commission.

Personally, the grooviest person I’ve ever known is Simon Walker, my schoolmate at Felsted School in the 80s. He was the school captain (head of school), scored all As in his A-Levels and made it to either Oxford/Cambridge, ran the 100m dash in under 11s and was the 40th best long jumper in Great Britain at the age of 17 with a leap of 7.32m.

Update 10th June 2007: I’ve just found out that Simon Walker has been included in the list of Britain’s greatest ever long jumpers compiled by gbrathletic.com, with a jump of 7.62m in 1993.

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