Born as the youngest in a family of nine children M. S. M. Naleem is making a break with tradition in the agriculture oriented region of Kantale to take part in one of the grueling disciplines of athletics, as he follows closely on the footsteps of former national record holder Ravindran Ratheeshan to dominate the decathlon at junior level. Naleem won the decathlon, conducted alongside the Mobitel Relay Carnival at the Sugathadasa Stadium last week and said in an interview with ‘The Island’ that he was looking forward to representing Sri Lanka at the Junior Asian Championships, as did former champion Ratheeshan.

The athlete from Kantale, who won the decathlon is on course to emulate junior record holder and former national record holder Ratheeshan. After finishing on top at the end of the first day’s events in the decathlon Naleem was certain of winning the event and eventually did so, aggregating a 169 points lead over the silver medal winner.

Naleem beat R. Seneviratne of Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa and Reshan Saputhanthri of Ananda College, Colombo to second and third place to win the championship.

Naleem aggregated 5172 points, while second placed Seneviratne obtained 5013 points.

Incidentally, both Naleem and Ratheeshan, who established the Sri Lanka Junior record in an Asian Junior Championship some seven years ago, are both products of St. Joseph’s College, Trincomalee and were both coached by S. Wijeyaneethan.

"My father and three of my four brothers are all farmers. The other brother is a PTI at Al Tharik College, Kantale. Most of the other youth in the area take up farming after school. But I decided to persevere in athletics because I know that I could do well in the decathlon ," Naleem said. Naleem has four brothers and four sisters.

The athlete, who started to impress as a thrower at the junior level displayed potential in the decathlon, when he competed in 2006, according to his coach S. Wijeyaneethan.

According to Wijeyaneethan, Naleem is a triple champion in the Eastern Province. "He is the 110 meter hurdles champion, 400 meters champion and the pole vault champion in the Under-19 category.

Naleem is studying for his Advanced Level at St. Joseph’s College, Trincomalee. Wijeyaneethan said that Naleem has great potential. "He has it in him to be a medal winner for Sri Lanka at junior level. Like Ratheeshan, he too is capable of taking the junior decathlon record to a new height," Wijeyaneethan hoped.

"He trains five days a week at McHeyzer Stadium which is the District Training center. It has facilities needed for training. They were provided by the Sports Ministry of the Eastern Province. I hope that Naleem will break the junior record within the next 12 months," Wijeyaneethan said.