The humble hurdler who won Singapore’s first SEAP Games gold

PHNOM PENH – Singapore’s first gold medal at the South-east Asian Peninsular (Seap) Games was won by hurdler Tan Eng Yoon, but in an interview with The Straits Times in 1994, he admitted that he did not know where it was kept.

His family and friends would attest to the late Tan’s humility.

His second son Kenneth told ST: “He is not the type to brag about his accomplishments, and we knew of his greatness more from his friends and disciples.”

In an article for ST in 1999, his only daughter Sabrina wrote: “To him, sport mirrored life where exercising discipline, striving for excellence and knowing how to be a gracious loser or modest winner, were qualities he felt important to impart.”

As Singapore

claims its 1,000th gold at the ongoing SEA Games in Cambodia,

it is timely to revisit Tan’s historic feat in 1959 which paved the way for local athletes to go on to greater heights at the biennial event.

Then a self-governing British crown colony and not part of the peninsula, Singapore was invited to take the place of Cambodia at the first Seap Games in Bangkok.

The bespectacled Tan claimed the first of Singapore’s eight golds at the Games when he completed the men’s 400m hurdles in 54.90 seconds on a blazing Sunday on Dec 13, more than two seconds faster than compatriot Gunasena Migale. The St Joseph’s Institution teacher, then 31, went on to win the triple jump gold and a 110m hurdles bronze.

In a 1977 interview with ST, he described the race: “I was confident. I had sized up my rivals, including my teammate Gunasena, and I knew I would not have any difficulty beating them.

“At the fifth hurdle I was in front and by the seventh I was well clear of the field.

“I felt very proud when the Singapore flag was raised for the first time at an international meet, and Majulah Singapura was played.”

As he would go on to prove, Tan was a master at adapting – the one-lap triumph was just his third hurdles race over the distance since he started his athletics career 12 years earlier as a sprinter.

By then he had set a national triple jump record of 14.51m in 1955 that stood for 32 years, and competed in the triple jump and 100m at the 1956 Olympics.

Tan said: “I decided to take it (400m hurdles) up because I was then coaching. I was not a quarter-miler but since I had run the 200m hurdles at Loughborough, I thought to myself, ‘No harm having a bash at it’.”

“But there were few adjustments I had to make to cut down my time. I had taught myself to lead off alternatively with the left leg and then the right over the 200m hurdles. So I applied this technique to the 400m hurdles – taking eight strides between the hurdles instead of seven which was too slow and nine which broke my rhythm.”

After hanging up his spikes, Tan wore many hats before he died in a traffic accident in 2010.

He was director of the National Stadium Corporation, which oversaw the building of the facility, helped establish the Singapore Sports Council and served as its deputy executive director. He was also the Football Association of Singapore’s general secretary and helped set up its professional football league in 1996.

But his efforts in track and field left the biggest impression. Other than being a champion athlete, he also honed the talents of others, one of whom was his wife Evelyn Lee, who won a long jump silver and 80m hurdles bronze at the 1961 Seap Games.

Noting that the historic gold medal may have been stolen from their home, the 81-year-old told ST: “When I saw him running on TV, I felt very proud of him... for having achieved his goal and bringing honour to Singapore. That encouraged and inspired local athletes like myself to train hard so we could achieve success.

“The values we shared, the respect we had for each other, and the time we spent together made our love blossom. There is not a day that goes by that I do not miss or think about my beloved Eng Yoon.”

He also coached the likes of C. Kunalan, Mani Jegathesan, Heather Merican, Glory Barnabas and Nor Azahar Hamid.

Kunalan shared how he had been recommended to Tan as a relay candidate for the Teacher’s Training College, where Tan was a lecturer.

Kunalan was not keen and “avoided him for six months”, noting “how can I, with no sprinting background, train with the national team?”

“But we met on the college corridor one day, and he said, ‘I can recognise potential when I see it’. As fate would have it, he was going to be my teaching supervisor, so I couldn’t run away from him.

“I trained with him individually for two weeks... he showed me so many things. I still remember he noted that my left arm would twist to the side and got me to practise in front of the mirror to correct my swing.”

Now 80, the sprint legend also noted Tan’s selflessness, as there were times when he took his athletes to a Sungei Road cobbler to get them track shoes or spikes.

Once, he even volunteered to talk to Kunalan’s parents after they kicked him out of their house for dating a Chinese girl.

Kunalan said: “He was authoritative but not bossy. We were not friend-friend, but he had our total respect because he was so knowledgeable and took care of everything. He was athlete, coach, mentor, and a gentleman. He changed my life.”

There is no doubt he was also a trailblazer for Singapore sports.