He was the fourth Malaysian Olympian to die in June.
Hari Chandra, who represented Malaya in the 800m at the 1956 Melbourne Games, is the elder brother of track great Dr Mani Jegathesan.
Their father, N Manikavasagam, was the national champion over 440 yards in the 1920s and a top athletics administrator in the 50s.
Manikavasagam led the Malayan athletics team to the 1954 Asian Games in Manila where another of his sons, Balakrishnan, competed in the 800m. His eldest son, Veerasingam, was a sports administrator.
Hari Chandra suffered breathing difficulties at his home and passed away in the emergency room of a hospital in Singapore on Wednesday. His remains were cremated yesterday.
He had been physically challenged for several years and lived with his wife, Thangarasi. Their son, Rohan, is an airline pilot in Singapore while daughter Anita is living in the US.
Jegathesan, the fastest man in Asia in 1966, said: “Hari Chandra was 14 years my senior and I used him as a role model to shape my own athletics career.
“I loved him very much and I am going to miss talking to him about the days when all the brothers ran together.”
Malaysia lost three other Olympians last month, two of whom were nonagenarians like Hari Chandra.
Hockey icon Wilfred “Freddie” Vias, 94, died on June 7 followed by fencer Ronnie Ignatius Theseira, 92, 11 days later. Sprinter Zainuddin Wahab, 74, died on the same day as Vias.
Hari Chandra took Singapore citizenship in 1959, three years after the Melbourne Olympics.
The other members of the athletics squad at Melbourne comprised Lee Kah Fook (100m/200m), Raja Azlam Ngah Ali (100m), Sinnayah Karuppiah Jarabalan (100m), Abdul Rahim Ahmad (400m), Kenneth Perera (400m/800m) and Malaysia’s first woman Olympian, Annie Choong (100m).
In 2019, Hari Chandra and Perera, who had also become a Singapore citizen, were finally recognised as Olympians for their services at the 1956 Games.
Then Malaysia Olympians Association (MOA) vice-president Noraseela Mohd Khalid presented Hari Chandra, a former prison officer, his certificate and pin from the World Olympic Association at his home in Singapore.
Perera, who was with the police force, died at the age of 79 in 2013, and the Olympic credentials were presented to his family.
Noraseela, who became MOA president in 2020, recalled: “It was an honour to meet a senior Olympian and his lovely wife, both of whom inspired me with stories of Hari Chandra’s sporting exploits.”
At the age of 23, he broke the two-minute record for the 800m in then Malaya. The feat was superb considering he began his sporting life playing cricket and hockey.
After he became a Singapore citizen, he represented the republic in athletics and later groomed many athletes.
In 1975, he became the first Singaporean to run in an international masters meet and, fittingly, it was at the first World Association of Veteran Athletes Championships in Toronto, Canada, where he won silver in the 400m.
The victory pushed him to form the Singapore Association of Veteran Athletes in 1978, following in the footsteps of his father who, together with some friends, formed the Federation of Malaya Athletics Union and the Federation of Malaya Olympic Council in 1953.
Hari Chandra retired from competitive running at the age of 59, famously saying: “Once you cannot go across the line as in the past, then it is the right time to retire.”