Suhairi on fast track to glory

The 8th ASEAN Para Games will be held here from Dec 3 to 9, with some 1,500 athletes from 11 countries to compete for honours. As Team Singapore readies for the battle on home ground, TODAY takes a closer look at each of the 15 sports, and the inspirational stories behind the local athletes competing in them. The focus today is on athletics.

SINGAPORE — Suhairi Suhani insists he is normal, and will protest if anyone suggests otherwise. Yet the 18-year-old is candid enough to admit he is not “mainstream”. “I’m just different,” he said with a chuckle.

Such is the irony of Suhairi’s life. Here is a perfectly able-bodied teenager, competing in next month’s ASEAN Para Games — a biennial sporting event for disabled athletes.

He will fly Singapore’s flag in the T20 category of the 400m and long jump events.

While wheelchairs, prosthetic legs and blades are the usual order of the day in the competition arena, Suhairi needs none of those. All he needs is time.

You see, Suhairi — a strapping 1.78m-tall young man who boasts a commendable 11.8s in a 100m sprint — has a body stronger than his mind. He has a learning difficulty, takes a longer time to understand concepts, a longer time to react, a longer time to remember, and a longer time to focus.

The world classifies him as intellectually disabled, but Suhairi is smart enough to frown at the word “disabled”.

“I am able-bodied. Look at me, I am normal. I walk properly, so I can run properly (too),” said Suhairi, who attends Delta Senior School, a special needs institution.

“I can achieve things, too, that other ‘mainstream’ people can. My mind is okay and strong. My studying and understanding of things is slower, but I am confident and determined in my mind. This is my life, and it is my dream to win medals for Singapore. I want to be an athlete.”

Ask Suhairi and he would tell you he was born normal. But a high fever in primary school changed his life.

“I can’t remember how old I was,” he said. “I just remember having a very high fever and got admitted to the hospital. After that, my life changed. I went back to school and I found it hard to concentrate.”

Subsequently, he took an IQ test and found that he has intellectual disability. “I didn’t know what it meant then,” he said. “But now I know.”

To make up for what he lacks in the mind, Suhairi puts in the hard work on his body. He keeps a small notebook, containing pointers on running techniques and other advice from his coach, former national sprinter Muhamad Hosni Muhamad, and diligently goes through them before bed on some nights.

“I have the best coach, but I (need to) do my part too. Running and long jump may look easy, but it is (about) technique. I like watching Usain Bolt run. He is very confident and very inspiring,” said Suhairi, who has a personal best of 56s in the 400m.

“I want to see how fast I can go. For this APG, I want to go below 50s in the 400m, and above 7m in the long jump. I want to go to the Paralympics. One day, I want to do Singapore proud in the Paralympics.”

That dream is not far away. After all, Suhairi is no stranger on the world stage, taking gold in the 800m race at the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Greece, and a silver and bronze in the 100m and 200m sprints at July’s Special Olympics.

But all that glitters is not what he hopes to earn from next month’s APG — there is also respect.

“I hope at this APG, people will learn more about the para-athletes,” said Suhairi. “Sometimes, I know people talk bad about me. It hurts my feelings, but I just try not to care and walk away each time. But this is the life given to me, and I am only focused on being a good person, (and) a good para-athlete.”

DID YOU KNOW?

Athletes with intellectual disabilities competed for the first time in the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta. They competed again in Sydney four years later, but a scandal erupted when 10 out of 12 members of the Spanish basketball squad were unmasked as impostors, without any disability. The 2012 Paralympics in London was the first time athletes with intellectual disability took part in the Games since that scandal, and they competed in athletics, swimming and table tennis.

ASEAN PARA GAMES PARA-ATHLETICS

Para-athletics consists of a wide range of competitions and events that are open to both genders in all impairment groups. This sport is carried out on either the track or in the field, and involves various events such as running, throwing or jumping. Wheelchair athletes compete on racing wheelchairs for the running events, while the visually impaired receive guidance from a sighted guide.

Classification: Athletes compete according to six functional classifications in each event, and the prefix T stands for “Track” and F stands for “Field”. The lower the sport class number is, the more significant the activity limitation. They are:

Sport Classes T/F11-13

•Visual impairment

•Allocated based on level of visual impairment

Sport Class T/F 20

•Intellectual impairment

Sport Classes T32-38 and F31-38

•Have athetosis, ataxia and/or hypertonia, which affect the ability to control legs, trunk, arms and hands

•Classes 31-34: Compete in a seated position

•Classes 35-38: Compete standing as they show better function in their legs and trunk control

Sport Class F40

•Short stature

Sport Classes T/F42-46

•Different levels of amputation

•Classes 42-44: Legs affected

•Classes 45-46: Arms affected

•Compete standing

Sport Classes T51-54 and F51-58

•Compete in a wheelchair

Team Singapore’s athletics contingent at the 8th APG: Suhairi Suhani, Zac Leow, Choo Leng Hin, Jack Lai, Lieu Teck Hua, Muhd Azmi Mohd Amir, William Tan, Muhd Firdaus Nordin, Muhd Haziq Ibrahim, Muhd Norisham Yusra, Danial Rusydi Rahman, Ivan Chua, Michelle Yogasweri Krishnamoorthy, Lionel Toh, Muhd Farihin Mazlan, Lim Wei Leong (debutant)

THE GAMES ON MEDIACORP:

On okto:

* Dec 3: Opening ceremony ‘LIVE’ at 8pm

* Dec 4-9: Daily action belt, 8-10pm

* Daily Highlights, ‘LIVE’, 10-10.30pm

On Toggle

* Visit Toggle.sg/APG2015