Dato Tham Siew Kai
KUCHING: Dato Tham Siew Kai has become the first Sarawakian to be elected as one of the vice presidents of the Malaysian Athletic Federation (MAF), the national governing body for athletics, last Saturday.
The 81-year-old veteran official of Sarawak Amateur Athletic Association (SAAA) was among the four nominated candidates elected as vice presidents for the term 2014-2016 at the National Sports Council’s Commonwealth Hall, Kuala Lumpur.
The others are Datuk Noorul Ariffin Abd Majeed, M. Iyaru and Datuk Rosni Sohar.
There were seven nominations for the vice president posts but three withdrew to contest the post of deputy president.
“I feel very honoured to be elected to the post and I would like to thank the new MAF president Karim Ibrahim, two other delegates from SAAA Leong Beng Keong (secretary) and Lim Su Yaw (assistant secretary) as well as the delegates from other states for supporting me,” said Tham.
“Through their strong support, I have opened up the way for other Sarawakians to go up in the future. It is not easy to be in the national body,” he added.
Tham is upbeat about the future of Sarawak athletics. He is also very confident that the new MAF president will be very supportive of the state’s efforts to develop athletics as he has a soft spot for Sarawak.
“Karim was posted to Sarawak as a Malaysian Air Force officer in the 1970s and knows Sarawak very well because he has been to many parts of the state,” said Tham.
In fact, Karim’s wife is from Kuching. He is also a close friend of Tham as both have been involved in athletics for a long time.
Tham is optimistic that Sarawak athletes will pose a very strong challenge in Sukma XIX in 2016. He noted, for example, that two of the state’s best sprinters are now training in Kuala Lumpur.
“Jonathan Nyepa and Nixson Kennedy are now training under MAF technical director Robert John Dallard and I believe they will be among the top athletes to watch out for in Sukma,” he said.