Race walking experts share expertise
RACE walking coach Mogan Rajoo returned to his old stomping ground SK Rahang with a purpose - to share his sporting expertise with his “super juniors” through an Athletics Talent Identification Programme his alma mater organised last month.
The aim of the event was to equip pupils with the knowledge of warming up, cooling down, stretching, drills and the fundamental techniques of running, race walking and sprint relays.
The programme was carried out by Mogan, 45, former 1980s MSSNS chief coach M.A.A. Anthony Samy, 78, and R. Sathiyakumar, 53, who was the North Seremban District Schools Sports Council (MSSDS1) athletics technical chairman from 2002 to 2012.
Mogan had previously set the national record of 43m 03s at the NS Open in Paroi in 1997.
Since 1995, he has held the Negri Sembilan state walk records for 20km in 1h 32m 35s, and 50km in 4h 39m 12s.
Mogan, a pupil in SK Rahang from 1981 to 1986, won the 10,000m walk event at the Chiangmai Sea Games in 1995 by setting a new SEA Games record of 43m 34s.
He says returning to SK Rahang brought back fond memories that would last a lifetime.
“I used to run and train in the school field from 1982 to 1986 (Year Two to Year Six).
“But the new school buildings have reduced it to a small green pitch and the present pupils have to train in other fields,” he says.
He was, however, glad that pupils got to enjoy better facilities now.
Mogan hopes that the pupils he interacted with during the programme would be able to excel in the Seremban 2 District
(MSSDS2) and state (MSSNS) athletics meets scheduled to be held in the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Stadium in Paroi next year.
Year Six pupils Muhammad Najmi Rosli, Puteri Mayzura Hafizi and 50 others present had a field day with the race walking experts.
Muhammad Najmi - who was last year’s under-12 shot-put event winner and silver medalist in the 4x100m and 4x200m relays at his school’s Sports Day - enjoyed the session. He learned how to increase his speed and stamina in sprint events.
Muhammad Najmi was also a gold medalist at the 2018 WTF Taekwondo
International event in Nilai and at this year’s national meet in Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang.
Puteri Mayzura, who won the bronze medal in the girls’ Under-12 80m hurdles during last year’s Sports Day, had a good time learning the correct way to race walk.