Niyaz Majeed - ruggerite and weightlifter par excellence

S M Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy sports correspondent

I was the strongest man in Sri Lanka for two years and set up no less than eleven records in weightlifting said double international Niyaz Majeed who played rugby and also represented the country in weightlifting.

Niyaz Majeed who had his education at St Anthony’s College, Kandy played rugby, basketball and tennis for the school but he preferred to play something which is aggressive where he could display his strength. He did a little boxing like sparring but did not pursue this sport to devote more of his time in rugby and weightlifting.

Right throughout he has played as a flanker and was the first captain of Kandy Lake Club when this game was introduced to this club by late E W Balasuriya who has been a tower of strength from the time he left school by helping him financially and also with employment for the last fifty odd years. He is now the General Manager of 212 branches of this book making institution.

His first contact with Kandy Lake Club was quite by accident. Being young and strong, he was raring to have a go at someone who indulges in unfair play or injustice.

This opportunity came his way when Kandy Lake Club found a bully who posed off as a strongman to terrorise the club and its membership with his ‘one way traffic habits’. He was asked to tame him. At this time he was training at the Kandy YMCA with the doyen of trainers and weightlifter S A Wijewickrema (jnr).

He and triple international Mahes Sabaratnam were put on this job. Came the ‘bully’ into the club and started displaying his antics and Niyaz Majeed landed the first blow, a deadly one at that, which stunned the self-acclaimed hero as hitherto no one had dared to hit him for the fear of being mauled. When he turned around Sabaratnam did the mopping up operations till the villain lay prostrate on the floor and had to be bundled into his own vehicle and dispatched home. That was the last time this villain was seen at the club and went into hibernation.

From then onwards Majeed and Sabaratnam were employed in the club as strongmen and their task was to ‘shoot out trouble’ whenever it arose.

Majeed’s first experience in club rugby was in the mid sixties and was appointed as the first captain of the Kandy Lake Club which took the local rugby scene by storm. It had in its fold iron men, weightlifters, body builders, boxers and others indulging in martial art. They beat Havelocks SC in Colombo and also Kandy Sports Club and proved to be tough opponents to other clubs in the Premier League. But not many years after the club was banned for professionalism and served a period of suspension before re-appearing as Kandy Rugby and Football Club in later years. After a couple of years they merged with Kandy Sports Club and Niyaz Majeed turned out for Kandy Sports Club.

It was while at Kandy Sports Club that he represented the country against Bosuns and also for the Upcountry in the annual Capper Cup match against Low Country for seven years.

But it was really at weightlifting that he stamped his class and competing in the middle weight, he was the best lifter in the country for two years in 1964 and 1965 and records tumbled. In all he broke 11 national records and his best has been the total lift of 670 lbs as weights were measured by the pounds under the British system at that time.

At the national weightlifting championship, though competing in the middle weight he performed the rare feats of lifting higher than those competing in the higher weights.

He represented the country at weightlifting in two Asian Games.