Death Of An Icon

After the death of Punch Gunalan, Malaysia is shocked again by the loss of another key figure in Malaysian sports history. Tan Sri Hamzah Abu Samah, 88 passed away at 3.30 pm on 4^th of September at his house in Mantin, Negeri Sembilan.

 Tan Sri Hamzah was Malaysia’s sports Minister from 1971 to 1973. During his three years serving as a sports Minister, many achievements have been accomplished by Malaysian sporting events. Football for example qualified themselves to the Olympic Games in Munich defeating football giants like Japan and South Korea. It was also at the Munich Olympic that Malaysia’s hockey team qualified till the 8^th position. Besides being a sports minister, Tan Sri Hamzah was the President of the Olympic Council of Malaysia (1976-1998), President of the Olympic Council of Asia (1982-1986), President of the Southeast Asian Games Federation since 1977, President of the Malaysia Taekwando Association, Honorary Member of the International Olympic Committee since 2004 and many more.

Although he wasn’t an athlete, during his reign as a sports minister and as president of various sports committees, he has definitely brought Malaysia to a higher level. Amongst the most memorable sports achievement that was brought upon during his time was when Malaysia won second in the overall tally of Southeast Asian Games in 1971, producing sports legends like Mokhtar Dahari and Soh Chin Aun, and was the man who promoted Taekwando as a martial art sports that can represent the country in International Games. In fact, in 1972 he was the minister assigned to accompany Queen Elizabeth during her visit to Malaysia. His death is definitely a shock and a loss to many Malaysians.

 Hopefully, as a token of appreciation towards the progress that he has brought to the Malaysian sports arena, more Malaysians would take part and compete in sports and hopefully bring back a gold in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.