The walk Vegi still wants to finish

For decades, S Vegiyathuman’s life was measured in kilometres.

There were the roads taken over by the Malay Mail Big Walk, the Sunday runs that drew thousands to city parks and the races that gave ordinary Malaysians a chance to test themselves against the clock

Today, at 85, he measures distance differently.

It is the space between his wheelchair and the next step he hopes to take.

The man once known as the King of Walks and Runs is now wheelchair-bound after a spinal cord injury. He lives in an assisted-living facility, where, until recently, his wife, Anathaletchumy, lived alongside him.

She died recently.

For Vegiyathuman, who devoted much of his life to athletics, her absence has left a void.

Yet one thing she told him remains with him.

Even in her final days, Anathaletchumy kept urging him to exercise regularly. She wanted him to become stronger and walk again.

“I am doing just that and am confident I will walk again,” Vegiyathuman says.

It is a remarkable ambition for a man his age, but perhaps less surprising when his life is considered.

Vegiyathuman spent decades creating opportunities for Malaysians to take part in sport. He helped turn the Malay Mail Big Walk into a mass event, organised runs and staged Malaysia’s first 21km half marathon in 1989.

He also founded the Kuala Lumpur International Marathon, the forerunner to today’s Standard Chartered KL Marathon.

As general secretary and later president of the Federal Territory Athletics Association, he helped develop athletes and officials while remaining closely involved in grassroots competition.

His work eventually took him to the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, where he served as venue director for athletics.

He also worked as a walks judge at the 2004 Athens Olympics, the World Athletics Championships and the Paralympic Games.

For much of that time, Anathaletchumy was the person at home while he was at the stadium or on the road.

Her role never appeared in a results sheet. But she shared the life that came with his commitment to athletics.

That makes her absence particularly stark now.

As Malaysia celebrates its 69th Merdeka, there is a quieter side to such lives worth remembering.

Much of what builds a country happens outside the spotlight, through people who give years to their communities and institutions, often with little expectation of recognition.

And public lives rarely belong entirely to the people who lead them.

There are spouses who live with the long hours and absences, families that adjust and loved ones who provide the steadiness that allows another person to pursue a demanding calling.

Vegiyathuman remembers his wife that way.

“My wife remained a source of strength until the end. Even as age and illness changed our lives, she continued to worry about me and push me to do more,” he says.

Her voice is gone now, but her message remains. Vegiyathuman exercises, keeps trying and believes he will walk again.

His friends have stayed close, bringing news from an athletics world that once occupied much of his life.

For someone who spent decades among athletes, officials and thousands of participants, the quiet of an assisted-living facility must feel a long way from those days.

But there is no bitterness in his recollections. Only the awareness that life changes, sometimes in ways no one can prepare for.

The races continue without him.

Kuala Lumpur’s roads still fill with runners and walkers on race mornings, and the city remains a place where people gather to challenge themselves, chase personal bests or simply enjoy being part of something larger.

Vegiyathuman helped nurture that culture.

Now he has a race of his own.

And somewhere in that determination is the voice of the woman who kept telling him not to give up.

He is still listening.

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