Aliudin’s plan to move from pole vault to decathlon pays off – big time!

Proud moment: (From left) Suresh, Aliudin and Thomas in Torino, Italy.

EVEN though he was an expert at pole vault in his heyday, veteran athlete Aliudin Jumaat, 58, knew well enough that he could not be a contender for the event at the recent World Masters Games in Torino, Italy. Instead, he chose to take on multiple disciplines and feature in the decathlon, from where he duly emerged with a medal.

“When you enter individual events at international competitions, the standards are very high. So I checked the results from the previous Games and I figured that I wouldn’t be in the top five.