There was a time when Pakistani athletes blazed the tracks at international meets and brought untold laurels to the country
Recently a news report on the passing away of Muhammad Nawaz, a one-time ace javelin thrower and the last of the several legendary athletes who won laurels for Pakistan at the Asian, Commonwealth and many other international meets, during the 50’s and 60’s, evoked memories of my youth. Indeed, while we tend to glamourize the achievements of sportsmen who have brought fame to Pakistan in other sports (for example hockey, cricket and squash), we seldom remember our athletes, whose performance in the past had been equally commendable.
Athletics in the 1950’s and 60’s was a popular sporting activity. Meets were held regularly, with due ceremony at the school, college, Board, university and district levels. I can recall the great interest with which students would look forward to these gala events. Inter-school, inter-collegiate and inter-university contests were organized. The most well known of these being the Gordon Murray—F.C. College triangular meets. At the co-educational institutions, girl students attended as spectators, which added colour to these competitions.
Athletics, then being an important feature of college life, a large number of students would gather in the evening, on the campuses, to practise running, jumping, throwing the discuss, javelin, hammer or the shot-put. It kept them in the pink, as all exercise does, even if they did not win a prize at a meet. Coaches advised the athletes not to smoke or get into any bad habits, as it could affect their performance. But above all, the boys strictly followed the advice.
Various organizations too held their meets and the most well known, and eagerly awaited were the army, and the inter-services athletic contests, held at the Army Stadium in Rawalpindi.
I first saw Abdul Khaliq, the star athlete of Pakistan and his other legendary colleagues, practising in that stadium. Our college team had gone there to participate in the District Athletics meet. We were amazed to see him run so fast. His, had been a meteoric rise to fame, after he had broken the 100 metres record at New Delhi where he had represented Pakistan. I vividly recall the headline of The Pakistan Times, the next morning: ‘Abdul Khaliq proves a dark horse’, it read. He had clocked a time of 10.4, which was 0.2 of a second better than the Asian record. The world record (10.1) was then held by a US sprinter; it was 10.3 when the modern Olympics began in 1896. Khaliq repeated this performance on many subsequent occasions, but could not improve upon it.
Khaliq, relatively short statured, as compared to his other colleagues was a modest man, with a friendly demeanour. I never saw him boast of his achievements. Before joining the army he was said to have been a good ‘kabaddi’ player, a sport which requires great speed and agility.
In that era, 100 metre runners also competed in the 200 metres. At the 1954 Asian Games, held in Manila, Sharif Butt won the gold medal for Pakistan, in the 200 metres race. Later, Abdul Khaliq took up this event and proved his mettle, despite stiff competition. Perhaps not many people today know that he had clocked the fastest time of the heats (21.1) in this event, and reached the semi-finals of the Melbourne Olympics in Australia, in 1956, a commendable feat by an Asian runner in those days.
An event that stimulated a lot of public interest, a little later, was a contest, between Milkha Singh, an Indian athlete, and Abdul Khaliq. Milkha Singh had beaten Abdul Khaliq, in their first encounter, in the 200 metres race. Sometime thereafter, they met again in Lahore. Thousands of spectators had thronged the stadium to witness the thrilling race, but Abdul Khaliq (21.4) lost to Milkha Singh (21.3), against their expectations. It was nonetheless, a neck and neck race, watched by an enthusiastic and wildly cheering crowd. The next day in the same meet, Khaliq avenged his defeat by beating Milkha Singh in the 100 metre dash.
What impressed many was the devotion with which Abdul Khaliq and the other army athletes practised in those days. Brig. Rodham, a tall and strapping British supervised their training. He was invariably present in the stadium, to oversee and ensure that everyone strictly adhered to his daily regime of exercise and practice. A sports enthusiast with boundless energy and a gentle sense of humour, he was loved and admired by, ‘his boys’, as he endearingly called them. I have no doubt, that we owe much of our success in that golden era of our athletics, to his thoughtful planning, dedication, guidance and untiring efforts.
“Why don’t our boys excel in athletics now?” I asked Khaliq several years after he had given up running.
“Because they don’t work hard enough and lack the enthusiasm and necessary zest,” he explained, “that is necessary to reach international standards,” adding ruefully that athletics is not given the importance, it once was.
Ghulam Raziq, the high hurdler, also won laurels for Pakistan. A tall, well built individual, with a supple physique and long sturdy legs, he had chosen the 110 metres hurdles as his event. He would sail gracefully over the hurdles and held the Asian record at 14.4 seconds. There was no close second in any race, in which he took part. Additionally, he was a good 100 metres runner and had timed 10.5 more than once.
He too won several medals for Pakistan at the Asian, Commonwealth and other international competitions.
The third athlete, who struck me as most extraordinary, was Muhammad lqbal. Six foot four inches tall, he had a brawny physique which would have made any ‘Mr. Pakistan’, green with envy. He towered above others and could throw the hammer to a distance of around 190 feet. At a meet in Rawalpindi where I first saw him in action, his hammer went flying high, almost twice the distance of his closest contender. Not many readers would know that he reached the finals of this event in the 1956 Olympics.
Mubarrak Shah another of the legendary ‘golden boys’, was a long distance marvel. A serious and matter-of-fact individual, he ran the 5,000 and the 10,000 metres races. He practised assiduously, had a lot of perseverance and ran with great composure, at a steady pace. He won several medals at various international meets for Pakistan.
There were other great athletes in those days as well, in fact a galaxy of them. Muhammad Nawaz had toiled unflaggingly to make a name for himself, as a javelin thrower. His efforts bore fruit and progressing steadily, he broke the Asian games record with a throw of 210 feet in Manila (1954) and again won the gold medal at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo. Jalal was always his close second. He placed seventh in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.
It is said that as a boy, spear throwing was his favourite pastime. The boys in his village would pluck a stout branch from a tree, fashion it into a spear and use it as a javelin in their play. Very soon he became an adept thrower and on joining the army, decided to become a javelin thrower.
In the 400 metres hurdles, Mirza Khan won the gold medal in the 1954 Asian Games. Aslam bagged the silver medal, in the same meet, in the 800 metres. Both these races are very strenuous and competitive and runners need strength and plenty of stamina to win.
Training and grooming athletes, to reach international standards, requires meticulous planning, dedicated managers, qualified coaches, latest equipment, financial allocations and a carefully devised schedule, besides a burning desire, on the part of the athletes, to excel. If we are to raise our standards and regain our standing internationally, athletics must receive official patronage, as do cricket, hockey, squash etc. Interest of the students and the public should be revived, by organizing athletic meets as of old, and granting liberal scholarships to promising athletes as is done by the universities in the US.
Presently colleges do not hold their annual athletic meets, once a regular feature of their extracurricular activities. And if some do, they do so perfunctorily, in a half-hearted manner.
Further, athletic competitions for youth can be organized at the tehsil, district, division, province and national levels. Boys do well if trained at an early age.
Athletics, if organized in a planned manner, can help in building a disciplined and robust nation, for athletics instils into young men and women, the need for patience, endurance, as well as a spirit of co-operation and perseverance.
