To win a race against friends is joyful enough for a child, but to win several at a national competition and all without shoes is immensely more impressive.
The Fiji Times of Wednesday April 14, 1982, reported on the story of bare-footed long-distance runner, 16-year-old Kumaran Nair saying he “was jumping for joy yesterday.”
The youngster had two good reasons, according to the paper. He had been named in the national athletic development team to prepare for the Commonwealth Games in Australia later that year, and the South Pacific Games to be held in Samoa the following year (1983).
And he had a pair of new Adidas runners donated to him by Sport Ons, a division of Ba Motor Parts. Nair, a Sixth Form student at DAV College had won the junior men’s 5000 and 10,000 metres and the junior men’s marathon during the Colgate Games held in Suva that weekend.
And the youngster ran in all the three events on his bare feet.
According to Nair he did not have a pair of runners because he could not afford one.
“Even my school fees is being paid by a sponsor. My father does not work and the bread for the family comes from two elder brothers. I did not and could not ask them to waste money on running shoes,” Nair said.
Nair’s time in the 5000 metres was 17 minutes 42 seconds, just 1 1/2 minutes off the senior men’s champion Shri ‘Mushroom’ Chand’s time.
Fiji team manager Atma Maharaj said Nair could develop into a top-standard runner if he received the right coaching.
Maharaj invited the youngster to start training under his tutelage at the National Stadium for two hours every day and Nair eagerly accepted.
When receiving the shoes, Nair made a promise: “I’ll certainly try my best to better my time and I will train as hard as possible.”
He went on to add that he had his sights on the Commonwealth Games, and according to Maharaj if Nair did what he was told and remained dedicated he would make the team.
Maharaj named 26 other athletes for the development programme and said the selectors would keep a close watch on them together with 10 other school students who would be invited to join the Fiji team’s training.
For Nair, who had only started running a few months prior, the selection to the training team was surely only a start.
