Best athlete had the worst of times

by Meghavarna Kumarasinghe

He is none other than Ameer Sher Mohamed Khan popularly known among his colleagues as ASM Khan. Born on July 22, 1937 in Bandarawela, he was the third in a family of eight siblings. His parents were A.M. Khan, a businessman of Bandarawela and Ummu Rahma from Passara.

ASM had his education at St. Josephs' College, Bandarawela.

Khan decided to hang up his boxing gloves and concentrate on athletics. He trained very hard, jogging six to eight miles early in the mornings. Khan built up his stamina thereby as he had decided to be a middle distance runner.

Khan developed a passion for middle distance running and was determined and persevering. At the age of 21 in 1958, he established National records in the 800, 1500 and 5000 meters in one afternoon which was a remarkable achievement.

At the inaugural National Sports Festival in 1960, Khan became the first Sri Lankan to break the four minutes barrier for the 1500 meters by clocking 3 minutes 59.35 seconds.

In the same year, Khan bettered the Asian Games mark when he clocked 3 minutes 56.2 seconds when finishing fifth in the Asian Games at Jakarta. In the same year Khan bettered the Asian Games mark by clocking 3:56:3 when finishing fifth at the Jakarta Asian Games.

Despite such an outstanding performance, Khan was not able to participate at the Commonwealth Games in Perth, as the Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) of Sri Lanka, was unable to finance his trip.

Khan was a self trained athlete until American coaches JoeYance and Dr. Wilkings took him under their guidance in 1958 and 1960 respectively.

Khan commented that even through he had proved his potential to participate at world level, the AAA and the National Olympic Committee (NOC) never gave him a chance to prove it. He said that he was top seeded in the list of nine athletes but was left out and the others were given passages to the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.

Khan agrees that politics should not come into sport saying that Duncan White lowered the Olympic hurdles record when he won the Silver at the Empire Games in 1948 without anyone's support.

Khan excelled at soccer too, representing the Colombo Municipal Council when he was their playground instructor from 1962 to 1967. He notes with sadness how present day athletes who perform well and establish records at international level, are rewarded with a Pajero jeep, a house and millions in rupees.

During his time the AAA representatives would only applaud and say "well done". He heard this many times after his performances in Sri Lanka and Asia.

Furthermore there are companies that sponsor athletes and support them with finances, facilities and nourishment. In his time he spent his own money to travel from Bandarawela to Colombo to participate at athletic meets and return.

Ameer Khan married Safiya in 1973. They are blessed with two sons. The elder, Khalid, is studying in the Maldives and the younger Walid, is an engineer in Indonesia.