I remember Marina Chin..

Everybody remembers Marina Chin, the awesome sportswoman of the 70s. Don't you?
Well if you were in secondary school in the early 70s, you would.
Back then, she was an inspiration to so many girls in sports.
Marina, who will be 52 in October, shone during an era when sportsmen, sportswomen and footballers were the nation's pride.
And they were deserving of the accolades they got.

So apt and fitting that Marina was dubbed Malaysia's "track queen". She was Malaysia's fastest woman sprinter and hurdler and one-time Southeast Asia's fastest. Also, she was really a beauty queen (Railway Beauty Queen in 1975).
As a student of Convent Sentul School in 1971, she represented her school in the Selangor Schools' North Zone Athletic Championships in KL and won in th Class 2 100m and 200m sprints.
The same year, she also ran her first international game in the 4X400m -- the 1971 SEAP Games at Merdeka Stadium, KL.
No surprises that she was named Selangor Sportsgirl of 1972.
In March the following year, she broke the 200m record with a time of 26.6, beating the old mark by 0.2 second in the Selangor Amateur Athletics Association Allcomers Meet at Stadium Merdeka.
In 1975, as a teacher trainee at the Seri Kota Teachers Training College, she won a silver medal in the 400m hurdles, Asian Athletics Championship in Seoul, Korea.
In September the same year, she won the 100m hurdles with a new national record of 15.2 and the 400m hurdles in 64.9 seconds at the Singapore Open Athletic Championships in Singapore.
In 1976, she won a gold medal in the 100m hurdles clocking 15.3 seconds at the Philippines Invitational Athletic Championships in Manila.
At the Malaysian Open Athletics Championships in Alor Star, Kedah in August 1976, she set a national record with 28.4s seconds in the 200m hurdles.
In 1977, she was named Sportswoman for the Year 1976 and also Selangor Sportswoman of 1976.
There were several achievements for Marina in 1977 that the following year she was again named Sportswoman for the Year 1977.
In 1979, Marina, Saik Oik Cum, V Angamah and Zaiton Othman scored Malaysia's silver medal in the woman's 4X400m team at the Tokyo International Asian Track & Field Championships.
She was unstoppable. She won gold medals in the 100m hurdles and the women's 4X400, relay team at the 10th SEA Games in Jakarta the same year.
Marina would have continued to blaze the trail but she had to leave for further studies to the US in 1980.

Now, she'll be training our young athletes to be champions. Marina has been made principal of the Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS).

Click here for the story.

(Picture above of Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein congratulating Marina on her appointment yesterday.)