The shopkeepers served tea, potato curry and Sel Roti to customers who always wanted “a little more curry”, or “a little more tea” in exchange of a few coins. It was a lady´s business, so his father hardly contributed, and hardly did anything else either.
Manandhar, who was studying in Shanti Nikunja Secondary School in Maruhiti back then, assisted his mother by washing dishes and attending to customers. “The shop barely fed the family,” said Manandhar while instructing aspiring marathoners at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday on the tracks of Dasharath stadium.
Manandhar had a secret passion. In the mornings, he tried to match the steps of athletic superstars of his time -- Bhupendra KC and Ganga Bahadur Thapa -- who made several complete rounds of Tundikhel every morning. Dasharath stadium hadn´t been built back then. The school boy would follow the two around Tundikhel unnoticed until he could and then would watch his heroes carry on.
“Boys don´t put in the needful effort these days,” he said. But during his time, effort wasn´t the problem as there was little distraction.
Manandhar´s parents weren´t happy about his career choice -- marathon. They feared he was straying from the normal path of life. But he allayed their fears at 18 years of age when he became the national marathon champion. Handful of newspapers that were published back then carried his pictures, showering praises on “the little boy from a teashop who made it”.
That was just the beginning, to which the end is still far, far away.
He first tasted international recognition when he finished fifth in the first Asian Track and Field Championship held in the Philippines in 1973, his first international tournament. Fame continued to pursue him in the second championship held in Seoul in 1975 in which he finished fourth. But his reign as the undisputed marathon hero that lasted more than a decade started in 1976 when he was qualified for Montreal Olympics. His senior and hero Jit Bahadur KC could not qualify owing to insufficient preparation caused by his disillusionment with the sport.
From Kathmandu to Montreal Without Visa
Three months before the Montreal Olympics started, Manandhar left Nepal as the lone representative from the country. He was told by his main coach Laxman Bikram Shah that Olympic qualifiers do not need visas for travel.
Back then, one needed to fly to Delhi and then to New York for reaching Montreal in Canada.
“I flew to Delhi carrying my Olympic qualification document, passport, a pair of daura suruwal, trunk, running vest and a pair of shoes,” said Manandhar, grinning. “I didn´t face any problems at Delhi immigration. But I found myself in deep trouble in New York.”
Immigration officials in New York were shocked that a man from Nepal had made it that far without a visa. Manandhar explained them that he had qualified for Montreal Olympics. They enquired with the Nepali diplomatic office in New York, and then in London and confirmed that the rustic man carrying precious little for luggage was indeed what he claimed he was.
“They then asked me why I was in New York three months before the tournament. I told them I wanted to train in the United States for acclimatizing with conditions in Canada,” he related.
Manandhar was carrying US$130 given to him by the government as expense for the entire tournament, and another US$200 he had bought at Freak Street in Jhonche for Rs 12 a dollar. That was hardly enough to live for three months in the States.
Fortunately, the officials made arrangements for him to live with an American family in New York. He trained for two months in the sports facility of none other than Cornell University!
Manandhar finished 50th in the Montreal Olympics, but still managed to attract BBC journalists who couldn´t help being amazed by the man from Nepal who often got lost in the Olympic venue, had difficulty finding knobs to open doors, and had miraculously arrived from an unknown land without a visa.
Sailing on Success
“Sport was a very low-paying profession back then,” said Manandhar. “Many, like Jit Bahadur dai, disappeared from the arena as they could not support their family by running on the tracks. But I was lucky to be able to raise my two sons and two daughters from what I earned as a sportsman.”
For the next decade, Manandhar was the reigning marathon champion in the country. He participated in three more Olympic events -- Moscow (1980), Los Angeles (1984) and Seoul (1988), during which he bettered his personal Olympic record.
After participating in each international tournament, he brought back loads of shoes, running vests, track suits, trunks, and other gifts that generous people gave “the athlete from the Himalayas”. A chunk of the gifts found users in aspiring athletes who couldn´t afford proper sports gear.
But it was his performance in the second SAF Games in 1987 in which he was the only gold medalist from Nepal that continues to make him proud. The two hours 15 minutes and three seconds that he clocked in that tournament remains until today as the unbeaten SAF (now SAG) record.
Since 1987, Manandhar has worked as a coach. He lives with his family in a house he built in Kalanki with his earnings as a sportsman.
Manandhar says sports, though much financially rewarding now than during his times, is more than just a “khel”. “It´s about hard physical work. You train for years in oblivion for a single event. It is tough both on the body and the mind. I don´t´ see that kind of commitment in athletes of today,” he said.
During his long career, Manandhar has seen many promising athletes get disillusioned with the profession. “To survive as a sportsman in Nepal, you must persevere and wait for the better days that are always lurking around the corner,” he said.
It was this need for hard physical work and perseverance that made Manandhar discourage his sons from taking up sports as a profession.
But Manandhar himself is far from done. Every morning, he jogs from his house in Kalanki to the Dasharath stadium at 4:30 in the morning to train youngsters. At 10, he walks back home, takes lunch, gets some rest, and then walks to his office, the District Sports Development Committee, in Gyaneshwar. In the evening, he walks back home from there.
The champ isn´t yet tired.
bikash@myrepublica.com
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