Divine providence
Jaganathan believes he survived accident to help the para athletes create history
KUALA LUMPUR: For national Paralympic athletics chief coach R. Jaganathan, this year’s Deepavali makes him treasure life and its joys more than ever.
He almost lost his life in a road accident in January last year.
Jaganathan, who was riding a motorcycle, suffered a broken pelvis and a fractured first lumbar vertebra of the spinal cord after being hit by a car.
Thankfully, he recovered and went on to guide Malaysian para athletes to make Paralympic history – winning three golds and one bronze in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last month.
It was the best performance ever by para athletes at the Games.
He trained Mohd Ridzuan Mohd Puzi to a historic gold in the men’s 100m T36 (cerebral palsy) final. Ridzuan clocked 12.07 seconds to break the Paralympic record of 12.25 set by Roman Pavlyk of Ukraine in Beijing in 2008.
It was also Malaysia’s first-ever Paralympic gold medal since taking part in the Games in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1972.
Ziyad Zolkefli and Abdul Latif Romly also struck gold at the Rio Paralympics.
Ziyad, the bronze medallist in London four years ago, broke the world record in men’s shot putt F20 (intellectual disability) with a throw of 16.84m.
Abdul Latif, the nation’s flag bearer and youngest in the contingent, broke the world record three times on his way to winning the long jump T20 (intellectual disability) gold.
His winning leap of 7.60m – on his fifth attempt – is just 0.28m off the national long jump record for able-bodied athletes, which was set by Josbert Tinus of Sabah in 2007.
Siti Noor Radiah Ismail chipped in with a bronze in the women’s long jump T20 after clearing 5.20m in her third attempt. She also broke her own Asian record of 5.10m set in Incheon, South Korea, in 2014.
Jaganathan, who has been the national chief coach for disabled athletes since 2001, is just grateful that God has given him a second chance.
“I thought that I wouldn’t be able to walk again, but God wanted me to recover so that I could continue doing what I love most – help train athletes for competitions,” said Jaganathan, who needed more than three months to recover from his injuries.
“I’m happy to have helped Malaysia create history in the Rio Paralympics with the threegold haul. It’s also great that our athletes broke two world and one Paralympics records.”
Jaganathan began his athletics career as a middle distance runner in the 1970s, but he quit due to a back injury. He began coaching in 1979. He trained former long distance ace M. Ramachandran in 1989 and the athlete bagged the 5,000m-10,000m double in five SEA Games from 1993 to 2001.
He also trained A. Munusamy, who won gold in the men’s 1,500m in the 2001 Kuala Lumpur Games.
He then became the national chief coach for the para athletes.
“I must thank my wife R. Mageswary for telling me to coach para athletes. I took her advice and I’m happy to have fulfilled my dreams of helping Malaysian athletes win golds in all the major competitions, like the Asean Para Games, Para Asian Games, the Commonwealth Para Sports, Paralympics and also the IPC World Championships,” said Jaganathan, who guided Mohd Azlan Yusof to three golds in men’s T36 in 100m, 200m and 400m in the Asian Para Games in Incheon in 2014.
It was only fitting that Jaganathan, who was named the best national coach in 2014, invited the Paralympic athletes and coaches to his house in Kajang to celebrate Deepavali with his family.
“This is the best Deepavali celebration for me and my family,” said Jaganathan, who has two sons – Tarumaraaj, 31, and Thashnamurty, 28.
Jaganathan said he would continue to train para athletes with the aim of helping Malaysia win more than 28 gold medals in athletics in the Asean Para Games in Kuala Lumpur in September next year.
“My dream is also to guide our para athletes to do even better in the next Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020,” he said.