A doubtful starter braces a sublime finish
Muhammad Aamir Uppal looks back at the careers of some of Pakistan’s real sporting heroes
“At the twilight of my life, I realize that my services were not properly utilized by the country” lamented Mubarak Shah, Pakistan’s celebrated athlete whom this scribe had a privilege to meet some three months back. Today he is not more and one realizes how indifferent Pakistan athletics stand today.
Mubarak wanted to leave behind an army of athletes but he could ill afford such an ambitious project in a country where no infrastructure is available and little to keep the adrenaline flowing.
Today, sometime after his death, one can recall his days when undoubtedly Pakistan athletics were at their zenith. With the likes of Ghulam Raziq, Abdul Khaliq, Mohammad Iqbal and Mohammad Nawab representing the country together, it had been a dream team and one can only yearn for the return of those days.
This can also be judged from the fact that in the last five years only three national records could be bettered in the Pakistan National Games whereas in the late1950s no less that six Asian records were credited to Pakistani athletes at one time.
Mubarak Shah had made his debut for Pakistan Army in the International Military Cross Country Championship in Brussels in 1952 and earned national colours for the athletic meet in Tehran four years later.
This long distance runner excelled in the 3000 meters steeplechase apart from wining laurels in the 5000 and 10000 meters races. In the 1962 Asiad he won two gold medals, each in the-then record time. It was not until 1970 that his Asian record was beaten. In all he won three gold and a silver medal in Asian Games.
Ironically, throughout his career, Mubarak remained a doubtful starter for one reason or the other. Most of the times his health had prevented him from participation in some of the major competitions; disqualification for a false start excluded him from the rest. Unfortunately he could never overcome his problems at the starting-point.
Probably, Mubarak’s problem at the starting point owed much to the lack of training facilities available coupled with the lack of confidence that primarily stemmed from his humble background.
Despite all these impediments, Mubarak reigned supreme at the national scene for more than a decade (1954 to 1964). He received the highest civil awards of the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Governor’s Award, President’s Pride of Performance medal and Presidential Award to list a few.
Ghulam Raziq was an athlete extraordinaire. The 34-year old Asian champ would certainly have worked miracles had his talent been discovered while he was in his teens. He started his international career after he had passed his prime and yet he remained at the top among the individual medal winners for Pakistan.
Winner of the President’s Medal for Pride of Performance in 1963, Pakistan’s ace hurdler was unaware of his fate in sports even after he had celebrated his 25th birthday an age when most athletes start thinking of retirement.
Incredibly, his last national title came at 36 and his timings at this ripe old age are hard to beat even today. His 14.0 sec record in the 110 meters hurdles has only once been beaten, by Ghulam Abbas, so far.
His 14.3 seconds remained a record at the Asian level for quite some time, where he won gold medals in 1958 (Tokyo) and 1966 (Bangkok). He had also won a gold in Perth in the 1962 Commonwealth Games. It was sort of record that Raziq never knocked down a hurdle in his entire career.
From amongst Mubarak’s other compatriots were Abdul Khaliq and Mohammad Iqbal. Abdul Khaliq was undoubtedly the Fastest Man of Asia. Despite the fact that he won two successive gold medals in the Asian Games in the 100 meters, he never had luck on his side in his entire international career that spanned the years from 1954 to 1962.
At the Rome Olympiad, he was nosed out in the quarter finals in a photo finish. Khaliq had clocked 10.4 seconds, a time which was only bettered by the eventual medalists. His 9.6 seconds for the 100 yards was an All British Games record at Manchester in 1957 and yet he failed to win a single gold medal in the Commonwealth Games for one reason or the other.
His records in the 100 and 200 meters are yet to be surpassed by any player in this country.
Iqbal’s baptism in international athletics cam in Helsinki’s Olympics (1952). A man with a gigantic frame, he had a gold each in the Asiad (1956) and Commonwealth Games (1954) to his credit and at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic he moved up among the top ten of the world.
His best, however, came in the 1960 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Meet where he burled the hammer to 63.1 meters to create an Asian record. His record at the national level stood for 32 years only to be broken by none other that his own son Aqarab Abbass at the 24th National Games in 1992.
From 1948, When the Quaid-e-Azam inaugurated the First Pakistan Olympics, to date Pakistan athletics have gone a long way of 52 years but, unfortunately, only a brief period from 1954 to 1960 can rightly be termed as the glorious one in Pakistan’s athletics history with the Tokyo Asian Games (1958) its peak point.
In Tokyo, Pakistan won 13 medals (5 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze) not to be compared with the 19 medals won at the 19922 SAF Games.
Sadly enough, today we are more concerned about winning medals at the SAF Games only to beat countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. With the present state of affairs one cannot think of winning a medal at the Olympics but at least dream about the glory of the days of Khaliq, Raziq and Iqbal.
This Obituary note was originally printed in The News on 1 April 2001 following the death of the legendry Pakistani Athlete.
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