Kuda Husen emigrates to work at Malaysian university

Former Maldivian marathon record holder and famed coach Dr. Hussain Haleem (Kuda Husen) has emigrated to Malaysia where he will be working at a university there.

Hussain was given a position at Sultan Idris Education University (SIEU) located in Perak as a Senior Lecturer in the Sports Science and Coaching Faculty. As per Hussain, he took the position as he did not see a path to progress in Maldives, in addition to this being a good opportunity.

Hussain's primary responsibilities at SIEU will be teaching subjects such as physical education, sports science and sports sociology, along with building up and training sports teachers and coaches.

Along with said responsibilities, he will be coaching the university's athletics team and train some Perak state level runners.

Hussain has been successfully running the KH Sports Academy as well. He was training children in the Sports For All Program (before the children chose their sport), professional runners and recreational runners.

Hussain stated that even though the academy is not operating at the higher level it once was, it will run smoothly even without him being there. He also stated that the Sports For All Program, which has become popular amongst parents, will continue as usual.

He said that he will create opportunities for Maldivian runners and coaches to train there. He has already given former runner and current coach Naseer Ismail an opportunity to attend a recent conference held in Malaysia. Hussain has also arranged for Maldives' junior running team to go to Malaysia in December.

Hussain is a runner who underwent training during the late Mohamed Zahir Naseer's time in the Olympics Committee, where Hussain was sent to participate and train in the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, South Korea. Hussain was trained under a Japanese coach at the time, where he proceeded to run in the 1988 Olympics and become Maldives' first Olympian.

Hussain went on to compete in the 1989 South Asian Games (SAF) held in Islamabad, Pakistan, where he set a marathon record of 2 hours and 45.03 minutes. It took 28 years for the record to be broken. After his running career, Hussain took to coach the national athletics team and was the fitness coach for New Radiant.

He went on to attain a PhD in Sports Science at New Zealand under an Olympic scholarship. Hussain said that once he had finished the course, he had the opportunity to gain citizenship in New Zealand. However, he declined and went back to Maldives with the noble intention of serving the country. He has also served as the Vice President of the Olympics Committee and was also a member of the Sports Council.

He has stated that he is an individual with critical opinions, with heads of associations and figures in sports harboring dissatisfaction because of it without acknowledging his criticisms. He also said that even though he wants to use what he studied to pave the path to progress for sports, there is no opportunity for him to go down that route without being involved politically.

"Every government has offered me a job. But I can only get the job if I join a political party. This is not something I believe in," said Hussain.