Athletics great C Kunalan goes “On the Record” with 938LIVE on the roles that the Government, the public, business and the family can play, in pushing Singapore sports and athletes to the next level.

SINGAPORE: Despite only really being discovered at the age of 20, former national sprinter C Kunalan is regarded as one of Singapore’s greatest ever athletes. His time of 10.38s for the 100m, recorded when representing Singapore in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, was a national record that stood for 33 years.



As the Olympic Games in Rio approaches this year, Kunalan went “On the Record” with Bharati Jagdish about what it will take for Singapore to win more medals, and why the Government and businesses should be doing even more to help athletes. They started talking about how it all began for a young Kunalan.



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C Kunalan: I was very small and although I had natural speed, it did not show when I was in school. Because there were other bigger and stronger boys who trained, they were the ones selected. So, I was not on their radar.



Bharati: How did that feel – to not be on the radar for so many years?



C Kunalan: I felt I was good. It meant nothing to me. I was not envious. In fact, I was very appreciative of everything that went on. I supported the school cricket team, the football team, the rugby team. But I did get a chance when I was in my last year in school. I had tried out for the sprints, to represent my house, but I was nowhere and then the housemaster said, "I will put you in an event for the school sports day.” And he put me in for the opening event. In those days, most schools would have a one-mile race as their first event.



Bharati: Do you ever regret being discovered so late in life?



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C Kunalan: Never.



Bharati: Why not?



C Kunalan: I think I achieved whatever I could have achieved. I don't think starting late was a problem maybe because although I started late, I still had fundamental movement skills. As a kid you are out playing. The kids nowadays don't get a chance to play freely, so they need that early start in sports and so on. But I had that background already.



FINDING LOVE ON THE RUNNING TRACK



Bharati: We’ll talk more about that in a while when we talk about youth and sport - the fact that the kids nowadays don't engage in exercise and sports very naturally. It tends to be very structured and if you don't have that structure, you may just never become good. But first, I understand you met your wife on the track. You were both in the Teacher Training College track and field team. There was a problem though. Your families were against the two of you being together. It was a race issue.



C Kunalan: Yeah, both the families were not in favour. And both of us had to leave our homes, and had to struggle outside. Fortunately for her, her mom, who was wife number two among four wives, had left home when Yoong Yin was 12-years-old. So when time came for her to leave home, she went to stay with her mom. I had to go out and look for a room. It went on like that for a year and then we decided that we should take matters in our own hands and plan our wedding. Then the families came together.



Her mom, of course, was in support. Her brothers were in support. Then my father came to see me one day where I was staying, which was a surprise. It made my hair stand when I saw him.



Then he said "Oh okay, we hear that you are serious about getting married, why don't you come home, ask your mother for forgiveness, and we'll get married in the Hindu temple using the Hindu rites.”



It worked. Then in the afternoon, we did what we had planned - our Western-style wedding. We held it at Adelphi Hotel. And then at night, we had a Chinese dinner for close family and friends.



Bharati:Did you ever think twice about staying together, considering it could have totally damaged your relationship with your family?



C Kunalan: This was 1965, and in 1966, the pledge was written: “We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people.” So we thought we must get married. I think, now, there are so many inter-racial marriages and I think it's so well accepted, but I'm sure there are a few members of the older generation who still object. Recently, we had a very young couple who came to talk to us about this and we gave them strategies to deal with it. But overall, I think things have really changed.

Bharati:You’ve mentioned to me before that family played a big part in your success.



C Kunalan: In the earlier years, my mom and dad were very supportive when I went into the athletics scene. We had a family car that they allowed me to use. I was supposed to drive them to work, bring them back, drive my mom to temples, this and that. But in between, they would give me free usage of the car, so that I could go to work and go for training. Then later when I got married, and my wife and I after having our first child, rented a flat in Henderson Crescent. I was preparing for the Olympics. I was going to school to teach. She was going to school to teach and she had to look after my meals. And so without her total support, I couldn't have done this. She had to sacrifice her own running career.



In 1965, she was just getting to be better and better and then in 1966, we got married, and in 1967 we had our child. That was the end of her running career. But, she had no ill feelings whatsoever. She supported me very naturally. Her support allowed me to train, come back and rest up.



Bharati:Your wife sounds like a remarkable woman.



C Kunalan: She is.



Bharati Jagdish: I understand that she suffered a brain tumor and a stroke about 10 years ago.



C Kunalan: She recovered so well. The brain tumor was not malignant. So for a year, she was on medical leave and then went back to work. After a year or two, she decided to take early retirement.



Bharati Jagdish: What was it like knowing that you could lose her?



C Kunalan: No, I don't think I felt that I would lose her. I just thought, “Okay, brain tumor. What did the doctor say? Take it out, right? And so, take it out.” Of course we didn't expect the facial palsy and losing hearing in one ear, but she recovered and we just expected that she would recover. We were not worried or talking about it or anything.

Bharati: You were National Family Council ambassadors once - held up as an example of couples with lasting marriages. How do you make it last?



C Kunalan: Good conversation. We talk about our work, problems and good things. So there is constant conversation. Things that pull people apart would be money, affairs and this and that. So for example, I personally think I'm good at managing finances, but she's just as good, so I let her do it. And I'm glad I let her do it because we're in a very comfortable position now. So we don’t interfere in each other’s areas of expertise.



LOFTY IDEALS

C Kunalan: More recently I’ve been more interested in worldly issues. Things like promoting Olympism and how to create a better world through sports. These are my lofty ideals.



Bharati: How far do you think you've actually progressed in meeting your lofty ideals?



C Kunalan: We are just still in the talking stage, I think. I think we have to get very serious about working together as sportspeople.



Bharati: What is lacking right now?



C Kunalan: I think we do not have the leaders who believe in this totally. We have competitions. But through the competitions, our participants must believe in the three Olympics values - excellence, friendship, and respect. We can easily show excellence during competition, but during competition, can you also show friendship and respect? Are we doing anything for these aspects? For instance, Malaysia declared that they would leave out certain events from their SEA Games calendar next year. Now, people are talking. People are saying that maybe the Malaysians are doing this because they know they cannot win medals in those events.



We should not be having these kinds of discussion. Sports leaders should be very clear about why they're hosting a competition, and then see if they can use even things that are negative to them, in a more positive manner. Then the rest of the countries can see that although they can't win in these events, they still want to hold them, because the other countries have teams. That brings you to another level of sports, sportsmanship and respect and friendship. There’ll be many, many instances like these.



We need leaders who are really committed, who can say, “Okay, come on, let's see how sports can help to build up our friendship,” and so on. Maybe our ministers can step up. Some of them, I think have potential, like Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam who was a sportsman himself.



Bharati: What will it take to convince leaders to make this a priority?



C Kunalan: Well I don't think we have enough people just under the leaders, who can convince the leaders. People like us, we have passed our useful shelf life, so we are hoping that we can develop the next generation of sports leaders, who will be closer to the country's leaders. And then, hopefully, the connection will be easier to make.



Bharati: You have to show them that in spite of all the problems we have in the world today, this issue needs attention too. That may be an uphill task.



C Kunalan: But on the other hand, you’ve got to see that although there is so much strife in the world today, the Olympic Games, the ASEAN Games - all are still going on. So people have not given up on the idea and the hope that sports may be the one main avenue of creating a better world. So I'm hopeful, that things will get better in this sphere. And there'll be people who will take up the call for making the world a better place through sports.



GIVING SINGAPORE ATHLETES THE BEST SHOT POSSIBLE



Bharati: You made it to two Olympic Games. What struck you most about those experiences?



C Kunalan: For the second one in 1968, in Mexico City, only 4 of us qualified: me, a shooter and two weightlifters. In those days there was no such thing as a wild card. The times and the distances and the points were set and you tried out for it. If you made it, you go. I didn't have a coach with me. They didn't have money to send too many officials. There was a Chef de Mission and there was a team manager. The team manager understandably had to look after the weightlifters because they were more Mandarin-speaking. So I was left to do everything for myself: getting the number tags, making sure of the bus route, where to go for training, where to do this and that.







Bharati: You weren't at all upset that all the other countries’ athletes got so much support, but you didn’t. You didn't think of it that way?



C Kunalan: No.



Bharati: Why not?



C Kunalan: I had more important things to worry about. Like when are my heats, what time do I warm up, what clothes do I bring. I was really preparing for competition.



Bharati: How does it feel to have never won an Olympic medal?



C Kunalan: I don't feel disappointed or anything, because I was realistic at that time. My preparations were nothing compared to the guys who were going to be winning. They were much bigger and stronger. I remember writing a letter to my wife about this, saying that their arms and legs were twice as big as mine. And the reason was they had been doing a lot of training, much more than I could have done.



Bharati: This goes to my next point. It is still challenging for Singaporean athletes to have the opportunity to train full-time. There’s often still this worry about having to do well academically and holding down full time jobs while training. Even you had to grapple with a job, a full-time job as a teacher while you were doing sport. Don't you wish you could've committed to sports full-time?



C Kunalan: Yeah. I know that if you did full-time training, there would be more time to take care of more aspects of training. There'll be better recovery, there'll be more opportunities to go for competitions. It would've been much, much better, definitely.

But it's okay. Because all that is happening now, for the present sportsmen and sportswomen, although not everybody can get time off, I really appreciate those of them who do take time off on their own, and put aside their career, and train full-time for a while.



MORE MONEY FOR SPORTS



Bharati: We have 4 Olympic medals – 3 of which were won by foreign-born athletes. I understand you feel it is vital for us to groom Singapore-born athletes. If they’re not able to commit to sports the way athletes from other nations are, how can they ever have a fair shot? What will it take for more athletes to be able to commit to sports full-time in Singapore? After all these years, there still seems to be a lack of money and security.

C Kunalan: The family must be supportive first. I know some of the young men and women who are training full-time on their own without very much support, but I know their family is supporting them, financially. And I think more families should do that, because you have a whole lifetime to work and earn. Of course, easy for me to say when the flat that we bought at that time was S$12,000, and the flats now will be…



Bharati: Hundreds of thousands. Also wouldn’t this inadvertently lead to only those from wealthier families succeeding?



C Kunalan: But the public must also be supportive. And I think more and more we are getting that kind of support. At the next level is the Singapore Sports Institute, and they are very, very supportive. We have a scheme for the high achievers who have the potential to achieve ASEAN Games and Olympic Games medals. They all get support, monetary support. And I think we are doing the right thing at various levels, we just need to do it on a larger scale. So more parents should be willing, and if the parents can't afford it, then the general public should be willing to make donations. And the companies, why not? Sponsor the athletes so that they can survive for a while longer. At the highest level, at the ministry level, I think they should not be afraid to put in more money. We are spending a lot. But we have money. So we should put even more money into it.



938LIVE On the Record C Kunalan on funding



Bharati: You said the Government should be contributing more. But it is pumping more money into sports than ever before. So why isn’t this resulting in a commensurate increase in the quality of athletes, in more medals at the Olympics?



C Kunalan: The problem is the other countries are giving even more support, and we are left behind. Some years ago when I was competing at the ASEAN level, I could get a medal. I could beat the Thais. I could beat the Japanese. But since then, these countries have gone ahead with their skills, and once they went ahead with their skills, we were left behind. We must see what the other countries are doing. For example, in early May, we had the athletic championships, and a few countries came over - neighbouring countries.

I was sitting with the team manager and coach of Indonesia. So I said: “Eh, tell me what's happening now man, because I've lost touch with you guys.” Then he said they have 70 full-time athletes in camp. They are preparing for 2017. And then I asked about whether they were schooling. He said: “No, and even the juniors who are in school, they go to school, they come back at 1, they eat, they rest, they train.” So they are living in. And they all get a little bit of an allowance. How are we going to compete against them? They are training full-time.



Bharati: You said earlier that the Government has the means to inject greater monetary support into sports, so why isn’t it doing more?



C Kunalan: Maybe the Government is afraid that if they put their money into sports, then all the other aesthetics will also want similar kinds of support – the arts and so on. I think they should! They should support all these, because these are the things that make our society. So whether it's an artist who is struggling, whether it's a musician or a sportsperson, there must be enough support from the Government. The Government must not feel shy about supporting these kinds of areas.



Bharati: The Government also has to consider what ordinary Singaporeans feel – the Government’s money is taxpayers’ money, so you’ll probably have to convince taxpayers first.



C Kunalan: Yes, so we must spread the word that there's also another aspect of sports, and that is when you go seriously into sports, the training, the competitions etc, build certain qualities in you, which other areas will not. You need that competitive element to develop all these values. Only when you are in a competitive situation can you show excellence and you have a chance to also show respect and friendship. And so this is the value of competitive sports. You'll never get this anywhere else.



GETTING BUSINESSES TO DO THEIR PART



Bharati: Why do you think private sponsors are so unwilling to come forward?



C Kunalan: Maybe we have not approached them in the right way. We have a big group of them now, who have come onboard, but we need more. We need the big-timers. Maybe it's a chicken-and-egg situation. The sportsmen and women must be marketable. So their faces, their body, their lifestyle, must be what the company wants to promote. And if you can get these two, the business and the sportsperson to match, we can take off in that direction.



Bharati: How do you think you can change your approach, in order to market these sports people better to the businesspeople? Like you said, it’s a chicken-and-egg situation. If businesses don’t support athletes, it'll be very hard for the athletes to become marketable in the first place.



C Kunalan: True. I'm thinking of our high jumper, Michelle (Sng). Over the weekends she did 1.80m again. And it's a good height. And she is doing it all on her own. I just wish somebody would just look at Michelle and say: “Wow what a jumper!”

How can we help her? Let's give her two more years. I believe Michelle can improve even further. But we, at that association level, don't have enough resources to dump them on just one athlete. So I'm hoping that someone outside will look at Michelle.



Bharati: How are you going to make them see Michelle? How are you going to reach out?



C Kunalan: Well that is what our marketing people should be focusing on, I guess. Maybe the companies should get an incentive. And the incentive scheme should work like this: If the companies put in money to sponsor sportsmen and sportswomen, then the Government's part is to give them tax rebates. And that can be done.



Bharati: So this would include athletes that haven't quite made it, but can and maybe have the potential to do it?



C Kunalan: Yes.



Bharati: What about National Service getting in the way of training?



C Kunalan: I think National Service is necessary and we cannot run away from it. We have many, even our track and field athletes, who have finished their National Service, and then they are back in training, so it can be done. During National Service, maybe the first 3 months, when they are doing the Basic Military Training, they cannot come out or anything, that's fine. Because you can afford to take a 3-month break and do your National Service and then gradually when they get posted to their various units, there'll be units where you can find time to train. In some units, the platoon commander gives you the time to train. Of course it'll not be 100 per cent, full-time training, but you can maintain a certain level of training and competitiveness. And then when you finish your national service, you can come back in again.



Bharati: But not all athletes get that kind of flexibility once they are posted to units.



C Kunalan: Again, it depends on the soldier himself. If you want to use National Service and the vocation that you are in, to help you later on in life, then you cannot blame National Service. Some of them want to become officer cadets, and that's their choice. If you want to choose that path, then you have to give up your sports path.

But there are others who do not want to be officers or anything, they just want to finish their National Service, and they can be posted to various units where, as I said, you can find time to maintain and then after that come back stronger.



Bharati: If people felt more secure about a future in sports, it may help them decide how to approach NS too. How would you make a case for a focus on sports among Singaporeans? People here have been very focused on academic success and financial stability rather than sport. You mentioned earlier how in your day, running around outdoors was a very natural thing to do. Today, things are different. It doesn’t come as naturally. Also, people often ask if there’s a long-term future in sports. When I’m done with competing, what then? Which is why they can’t commit to sport full-time.



C Kunalan: The problem is we are not making enough money through sports. And for that, we need spectators. When there are spectators, the sponsors will come. And that's where the money is. But how do we get the spectators in? We must have high-quality performance. Again how can we get the high-quality performance?



Bharati: You must invest in training.



C Kunalan: Okay, so I'm thinking, we get a few who do it on their own, get the high-level athletes, invest even more in them, draw the spectators, draw the sponsors, and then with that extra money, we can develop the less high-level athletes and the masses. So I'm appealing to the sportsmen who have the interest, who have the talent, to make some sacrifices in the beginning, and then become so beautiful to watch that you will draw the crowds in for us. And when you draw the crowds in, as I said, the sponsors will come.

Also, there is a future after sports. When they are finished with it, they will be very useful characters. Whether they go into business or into teaching, or look at Dr Mok (Ying Ren). He is a surgeon and he's spending time doing marathon training. Dr Ben Tan was an Olympic sailor and an ASEAN Games gold medalist, and he is in sports medicine. So we have a whole range. Next to the sports medicine, you have the sports surgeon, you have the consultant, you have the physiotherapist, you have just the normal people who earn a living giving massages, and so on. So there is a range.



A LOSING BATTLE?



Bharati: Your ideas and hopes sound workable, but if they don’t materialise, things may never change. Are you fighting a losing battle?



C Kunalan: No, if our economy goes the way it is going, then we will make it. Of course when times get bad, then we have to readjust our expectations. But as long as our economy is thriving, then we can pay attention to sports and the arts and so on. So don't let our sportsmen and artists suffer. We must work harder.



Bharati: Generally, athletics doesn’t get as much attention as say, swimming. How do you expect our athletes to perform in this year’s Olympics?



C Kunalan: We are hoping that some of our people will win medals. Definitely they're going to do much much better than in all previous games, I think. And when they do well, I think we will see that different level of support coming in. So that's my hope. You have talent. You have the passion. And then you have the right kind of training support - the physiology, the psychology. So now, feel confident and give it your best shot. Don't be mentally defeated, because you have it in you.



Bharati: What has sports done for you personally?



C Kunalan: As you can see, I'm small, but I achieved some things. And because of my sporting achievements, I was recognised and I got scholarships to study. I got good positions in my vocation, in my career. And I'm still recognised on the streets.



Bharati: Do you enjoy that?



C Kunalan: I enjoy it, yeah. Because I feel like I'm public property, and I don't have anything to hide in the cupboard. So I want everybody to have what I have. And you can get more than what I have got, through sports.

Listen to: C Kunalan on the Record

