Name: Gladys Von der Laage Chai
Born: Feb 22, 1953
One day, school coach Pang Shia Sui handed a petite 12-year-old girl to be mentored under fellow coach Joseph Lee.
That school girl was Gladys Chai Ng Mei. Under the tutelage of Lee, who taught her the straddle technique, Gladys made history, becoming the first woman from Sarawak to qualify for the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Even though her Olympic quest was disastrous as she was injured, she still went into the record books as the first woman and second Sarawakian behind Kuda Ditta to go to the Olympics.
She’s now a German citizen living and working as a photojournalist, having covered world events such as the Olympics, World Athletics Grand Prix and even the German Bundesliga.
Now at 66, known by her German name Gladys Von der Laage Chai, she is taking a step back due to her years as her son has almost taken over from her in following her footsteps as a photojournalist.
Chai can lay claim to being one of Sarawak’s sporting greats as she was one of the first woman to reach national and international level for many years.
Her meteoric rise came about when she left to train in the then West Germany in 1971.
Her meeting with coach and later future husband Rolf Von Der Laage helped turn her from a national-level athlete competing in the SEAP Games (now SEA Games) into an international class high jumper.
While competing for the national team in the Tehran Asian Games where she won a silver in 1974, which is her highest achievement, her national record of 1.73m set in the 1973 Games stood for 17 years as Sarawak’s women high jump record which still stands to this day.
Her former school coach, who was a famous state basketballer, saw the potential in Gladys as she started to show her talent, winning her school competitions.
She then started to carve a name for herself in the SAAA (Sarawak Amateur Athletics Cham-pionships) starting from the early 1960s.
She won the high jump and the long jump events in the Sarawak AAA championships in the 1960s right up to 1970.
Her first major breakthrough in Sarawak was when she became the first woman to jump over five feet, which was a great achievement in 1964.
She was Sarawak’s jewel for her wins in the Borneo Games — a “Borneo Olympics” involving Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak.
While in Germany, she added another event — the pentathlon as she was equally good in the long jump, the throws and the hurdles.
In her first international games as a 13-year-old, she lost to Burma’s Barbara Kyaw Bwa for the gold on comeback with both clearing 4ft 10in in the 1965 SEAP Games in Bangkok.
She won a double as she was unrivalled in the high jump and pentathlon events in the 1973 and 1975 SEAP Games in Singapore and Bangkok.
In the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1974, she was the first Malaysian high jumper to compete in the Games and she achieved 1.70m for ninth placing.
Together with Rolf, they later formed the world famous agency for sports photography, ASVOM. Rolf passed away at the age of 72 in 2006.
She last spoke to the press in Sarawak when she came back to Kuching for the Ching Ming Festival or Chinese All Souls Day.
In a rare meeting, Chai, who is originally from Serian, fondly recalled her early sporting days.
“Of course my former home in Sarawak is where the heart is and I came from a Chinese kampung in Serian,” said Chai.
“In those days, when I first started, athletics was very popular with many people flocking to the Jubilee Ground to watch the action.
“All the glamour, the excitement, was motivation enough for me to do well in sports.
“Today, I hear nobody goes to see athletics meets here but in Europe, it is different,” she said.
“There were the Borneo Games held every year between Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak and I used to compete and win.
“I started my high jump at the Chung Hua Middle School No. 1 in Pending and my school teacher encouraged me to take
up the sport,” recalled Chai, who said that athletes those days competed for the state and nation’s honour.
Chai said it was always nice to be back home after staying and working in Germany for nearly more than three decades. Sarawak will always have a special place in her heart — from her childhood to her rise in sports, culminating in her greatest achievement when she qualified for the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Next week: Kuda Ditta
