Once called as Asian Track Queen, born into a conservative rural environment in the small town of Tapah in 1943, Mailvaganam Rajamani overcame traditional boundaries for women participating in sport and rose to become the greatest track star that Malaysia has produced.
In just short period of 4 years, she had mega achievements for her running career.
As a primary school girl in Tapah and a secondary school girl in Ipoh, Rajamani was already showing early signs of promise. She progressed very quickly with encouragement from her father and guidance from her coach R. Suppiah.
Sandwiched between Rajamani’s exploits in the 1965 and 1967 SEAP Games was the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok, where she outran the best in Asia and emerged with the 400m gold medal and a new Games record of 56.3 sec. With this win she became the first Malaysian female athlete to strike gold at the Asian Games in any sport!
She is the 1st Sportswomen of the year for Malaysia in 1966. In 1968, just 24 years old and at the peak of her career, fate struck a cruel blow to end her athletic exploits prematurely. While training with two of her friends, with the Olympic Games in mind, they were struck by lightning. It killed her friend P.N. Govindan and left Rajamani in 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 Olympic Games and announced her retirement.
She then turned to coaching attended a specialist coaching course at Russia and her protégé was Marina Chin.
ACHIEVEMENTS (HIGHLIGHTS):
1964 - Tokyo Olympic Games (Selected for 400m and 800m)
1965 - SEAP Games, Kuala Lumpur (4 gold medals: 200m, 400m, 800m 4 x 100m – all Games Records)
1966 - Asian Games, Bangkok (Gold: 400m (record), Bronze: 4 x 100m)
1967 - SEAP Games, Bangkok (3 gold’s: 40m, 800m, 4 x 100m, 1 silver: 200m)
- Voted as SEAP Games Queen of Track
Awards - Sportswoman of the Year 1966, 1967
Sandwiched between Rajamani’s exploits in the 1965 and 1967 SEAP Games was the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok, where she outran the best in Asia and emerged with the 400m gold medal and a new Games record of 56.3 sec. With this win she became the first Malaysian female athlete to strike gold at the Asian Games in any sport!
She is the 1st Sportswomen of the year for Malaysia in 1966. In 1968, just 24 years old and at the peak of her career, fate struck a cruel blow to end her athletic exploits prematurely. While training with two of her friends, with the Olympic Games in mind, they were struck by lightning. It killed her friend P.N. Govindan and left Rajamani in 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 Olympic Games and announced her retirement.
She then turned to coaching attended a specialist coaching course at Russia and her protégé was Marina Chin.
ACHIEVEMENTS (HIGHLIGHTS):
1964 - Tokyo Olympic Games (Selected for 400m and 800m)
1965 - SEAP Games, Kuala Lumpur (4 gold medals: 200m, 400m, 800m 4 x 100m – all Games Records)
1966 - Asian Games, Bangkok (Gold: 400m (record), Bronze: 4 x 100m)
1967 - SEAP Games, Bangkok (3 gold’s: 40m, 800m, 4 x 100m, 1 silver: 200m)
- Voted as SEAP Games Queen of Track
Awards - Sportswoman of the Year 1966, 1967
She always says "Never pamper yourself"
3 comments:
Great article, now I would like to get in touch with Dato' M. Rajamani as she was our teacher in the 70's to invite her for our reunion this 17-19 June 2011. Hopefully if you have he contact no you cold pass it to me.
thank you
my ph no is 01-2726147 Mariam
great articles.
Do you have Dato M rajamani contact no. I would like to invite her for our reunion 17-19 June.
My contact no is 0122726147
Hi Mariam,
Sorry for the late reply. I dont have her contact. The info I had was tru online research. Perhaps you would like to get it from Malaysian Olympic Council or FTAAA.
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