He was right up there decades ago when Malaysian athletics was awash with teachers who seamlessly transferred coaching skills from the classroom to elite competition.
Anthonysamy, who died aged 83, was, by turns, a long-distance runner, athletics and kabaddi coach, technical official, talent scout, football referee and social worker.
Negeri Sembilan athletics benefitted from his services until 2020 when he suffered from poor health.
Anthonysamy, whose impact on athletics in schools since 1968 runs deep, had his left leg amputated due to diabetes two years ago.
He died on April 4, three days after Negeri Sembilan lost former national 5000m and 10,000m runner C Chinathamby.
Chinathamby, who died in his sleep, aged 72, represented the country and the state for nearly a decade in the 1970s.
He was part of the fearsome Edwin Abraham-coached quartet that ruled road races and open relays in Malaysia and Singapore in the 70s.
His teammates in Seremban’s Harimau and Negeri Sembilan Chinese Recreation Club (NSCRC) were the late A Ramasamy, Harginder Singh and C Sathasivam.
“No MAAU meet without MAA”
Sports administration guru A Vaithilingam said he had known Anthonysamy from the early 1960s.
He said Anthonysamy was among several Negeri Sembilan officials who were introduced by John Kanagaratnam, the late secretary of the Malaysian Amateur Athletics Union (MAAU now MAF), to officiate at many athletics meets in Kuala Lumpur.
“I am proud to have been associated with him from his days as an official until I retired from officiating in 1998.
“He was a joy to be with and he made his fellow officials enjoy their duties.
“The truth is that there will be no MAAU meet without MAA during his period of officiating,” said Vaithilingam.
Anthonysamy had since the 60s acted as a technical official at over 1,000 local and international track and field meets.
His highlights included the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in 1998, SEA Games (1977, 1989 and 2001) as well as the 1991 Asian Track and Field Championships in Malaysia.
Sathasivam, a former national long-distance runner, remembers Anthonysamy as a caring and dedicated sports figure, “whose contribution to athletics should never be underestimated.”
He said Anthonysamy and the late Jesu Maria Selvam were two technical officials from Negeri Sembilan who discharged their responsibilities with passion and pride for over three decades.
Cikgu MAA
As a coach and official, Anthonysamy was widely respected for his keen intellect, resilience, talent spotting and wide-open approach to pursuing excellence in all things.
He was instrumental in discovering and nurturing Nur Herman Majid as a school runner, who went on to become six-time SEA Games 110m hurdles champion from 1993 to 2001.
Sathasivam said the running track was Anthonysamy’s second home and that his charges never let him down.
In 1973, Anthonysamy was coach of the Negeri Sembilan team to the national schools championships in Kuala Terengganu where Sathasivam and HK Parameswari won gold medals in the distance races in the boys and girls events respectively.
“Our reward from him was fish head curry,” said Sathasivam of a period when coaches forked out their own money to buy food and drinks for their athletes.
Born in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Anthonysamy represented Perak, Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan in the 5000m and 10,000m at the Malaysian Open.
He served as a primary school teacher in Seremban and Port Dickson, and had former national coach Edwin Abraham as his mentor.
On weekends, “Cikgu MAA” and a team of coaches would train schoolchildren in Rantau, Port Dickson, Kuala Pilah, Tampin and Gemas.
In 1988, while teaching in SK Datuk Klana Maamor in Seremban, he persuaded a 22-year-old temporary special education teacher R Sathiyakumar to sit for the MAAU Grade 3 examination.
In turn, Sathiyakumar, who was coaching disabled athletes as a Universiti Putra Malaysia undergraduate in 1997, sought Anthonysamy’s help to take his programme to a higher level.
That led Anthonysamy to coach disabled school athletes from 1997 to 2009 for special education meets at state and national levels.
In social work, he played a role in counselling and motivating heart patients at the National Heart Institute (IJN) in Kuala Lumpur.