The Malaysian track and field squad at the 1972 Olympics. The squad comprised (front, from left) Hassan Osman, Peyadesa, Zainuddin Wahab, S. Sivaraman and (standing from left) Thambu Krishnan, coach Leslie Armstrong, Junaidah Aman. (Standing from right) Ishtiaq Mubarak, S. Sabapathy and Gladys Chai. – Photo courtesy of Peyadesa
IT’S early morning at Penang’s Polo Ground, a large open space with four football fields. In one shady corner, a bunch of kids – all in orange T-shirts – are fooling around. An elderly man rides up in an equally vintage kapchai; the kids snap to attention.
The boss is here. The man on the bike is Datuk PLBS Peyadesa: Olympian, ex-national middle-distance running legend and now, the kids’ coach.
He has a stern look about him. But Peyadesa is also a fun guy. Asked what the PLBS in his name stands for, he grins.
“Pusat Latihan Belia dan Sukan,” he quips.
The truth is that PL represents a village in Kandy, Sri Lanka, where his family is from, and the BS stands for Baba Singhe, his family name.At 78, Peyadesa is still sprightly and ready to run with the kids. There was a time when he was the best runner in South-East Asia.
He was also part of Malaysia’s legendary quartet in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, along with Thambu Krishnan, S. Sabapathy and Hassan Osman. All the others have passed on; he is the last man standing of that quartet.
Peyadesa remembers those days like they were yesterday. “Three of us – Hassan, reserve runner S. Sivaraman and I – were Prisons Department personnel. We were told on June 3 that we were going to the Olympics.
“On June 6, we were sent to Cologne for a month of training at a sports school of sorts. In August, we were in Munich and ready for the Games,” he said.
It was Sept 9, just nine days after National Day in Malaysia, when four of them ran in the Olympic heats and finished sixth with a time of 3:13.51s. That marked the last time Malaysia ever entered a relay team at the Olympics.The only other 4x400m quartet to have taken part in an Olympics was that of Karu Selvaratnam, Kuda Ditta, Mohamed Abdul Rahman and Victor Asirvatham – better known as Asir Victor – who clocked 3:17.6 in Tokyo 1964.
In 1973, Peyadesa and Sabapathy, along with Harun Rasheed Othman and Victor, set a new national record of 3:11.20 at the South-East Asian Peninsular Games in Singapore.
That record stood for 19 years until Azhar Hashim, Mohd Yazid Parlan, Samson Vallabouy and Nordin Mohamed Jadi clocked 3:06.64 at the Asian championships in 1991.
This record stands until today.
Asked how he became an athlete, Peyadesa said he was a hyperactive child but not a sportsman until he reached Form 5.
“I became involved in football, boxing, athletics and even rugby for BM (Bukit Mertajam) High School,” he said. “Actually, my first love was rugby.”
Peyadesa (left) hitting the tape ahead of the other runners in the 1967 Navy meet in Woodlands, Singapore. – Photo courtesy of Peyadesa
Athlete on guard
After Form 5 in 1965, Peyadesa joined the Navy, working in Sembawang, Singapore, and becoming a petty officer four years later. The Woodlands naval base was special if you were a sportsman, he said.
“We had several top athletes there, including Karu, who inspired me. Karu was also a national cricket and rugby player.
“Between 1966 and 1967, I was running for the Armed Forces and the Navy, mostly in Singapore. We also travelled to Penang and Kuala Lumpur just to take part in races.”
When his mother died in February 1966, Peyadesa left Singapore – and the Navy – to be with his ill sister in Penang.
“There were few jobs in Penang and I had to resort to odd jobs. “I was lucky to earn one or two ringgit a day but I was still running – for Johor.”
In 1970, his luck turned. Tan Sri Murad Ahmad, then the Prisons director-general, loved sports. During his tenure from 1957 to 1977, he recruited athletes – and many football players – into the department. Peyadesa became a prison warden in August 1970.
“I did not even have an identity card. Life was different then; many people born in Malaya did not have identity cards,” he recalled.“Thanks to Tan Sri Murad, I had my identity card within two weeks. It was even easier because I was born in Penang and did not need to apply for citizenship.”
While with Prisons, Peyadesa ran for the country at the Olympics and for Penang in local tournaments.
In 1977, he was no longer in the Prisons athletics team but he continued running for the state while working as a warden and doing electrical and maintenance work in Penang Prisons.
In 1978, he decided to quit athletics to concentrate on playing rugby for Penang. His team went on to become champions in the 1978 Government Services meet.
The late Asir with his medal collection.
Humble pensioner
After 28 years in Prisons Department, Peyadesa retired on a pension of RM550 a month – hardly the kind of remuneration an Olympian would expect.
“It was when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became prime minister that I got a substantial raise – over RM1,000,” he said.Despite his many tribulations, Peyadesa’s love for athletics remained. He started training youth, including Calvin Boon who was best athlete at the 2015 University Games, winning the 500m, 1,500m and steeplechase.
Age failed to slow down Peyadesa. Although he quit athletics when he was 32, he finally did his first Level 1 coaching course when he was 50. At 55, he became a Level 2 coach and then went on to do his Sports Science Level 1 at the age of 60 in 2007.
Coach ‘Datuk’ These days, Peyadesa spends Mondays to Saturdays coaching both would-be athletes and those who just want fitness classes. He does his training at Polo Ground, Bukit Dumbar, and a playground near Jesselton Road in Penang.
His charges are mostly the 35 children aged five to 13 in his squad. But there are youth and even older people who come to train under him.
“One 53-year-old man I trained just ran a 21km race. There is a lady who is almost 80 and she used to run in the Masters races.
“Of the younger ones, a few run in marathons,” said Peyadesa, who charges between RM1 and RM2 a day for his training.
“It’s not much; I can get about RM50 a day. It helps me make ends meet,” he said.
Life is not so bad now. But Peyadesa remembers the days when he was a forgotten man – the period between his days as an international athlete and when he finally became a coach.
“Nobody cared for us old athletes. But I am Buddhist and I did not let that get to me. I don’t worry about other people. I just live a simple, happy life.”
He has reason to feel happy.
“I retired as Prisons corporal; I was not an officer. But now I am a Datuk,” quipped Peyadesa, who got his Datukship from Penang government in 2022. “Some of my seniors never got that honour.”
He was also schoolmates with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at Bukit Mertajam Boys’ School, a primary school.
“I supported him in his early days but I am not into politics. I prefer to just stick to athletics.”
Peyadesa said his 46-year-old son is his strength.
“He takes me around in his car whenever I cannot go on my own. He helps me coach too.”
But most of the time, Peyadesa travels on his own, on his 25-year-old motorcycle (kapchai). It can be quite risky at times.
Last December, when his fellow Olympian athlete Thambu Krishnan died, Peyadesa was on his way back from the wake when he was hit by a lorry. He suffered five broken bones and was hospitalised for over a week.
Just three weeks later, he was back on his feet, training his charges.
Bouncing back
Peyadesa is also a qualified technical officer now and helps the Penang Athletics Association organise meets.
Penang, which once ruled athletics in the country, producing athletes like Saik Oik Cum, Zaiton Othman and Thambu, is now in the doldrums. But Peyadesa believes the state is now waking up from slumber.
“There are good athletes coming up the ranks, especially in the 200m and walking events,” he said.
“We need to identify 10-year-olds and put them on a five-year programme or longer.
“Now, what happens is the coach is changed every two years or so, with the programmes also being changed. We will get nowhere like that.”
How about the Olympics?
Peyadesa is not too optimistic.
“It’s also a question of size. When I was at the Olympics in 1972, the record holder was 6 feet 7 inches tall. I was 5 feet 7 inches tall, a full foot shorter.
“We also did not have many facilities or much funds, or equipment or scientific training.
“We have that now. But what we need is good management; we need awareness of sports. What we need are the right people in the right places,” said Peyadesa.
For more stories go to StarSpecial: National Day 2024
