A Sporting Chance : Painful Experience Motivates Reseda Track Coach in Injury-Prevention Crusade

A leg injury prevented Jasim Al-Kuraishi from fulfilling his dream of winning an Olympic medal, so the Reseda High track coach has dedicated himself to teaching runners how to avoid a similar fate.

At his Northridge home, Al-Kuraishi slowly turned the pages of a book documenting the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo and retold the story as though the injury had happened yesterday. He pointed to a picture that shows him lying on a stretcher, grimacing in pain.

Al-Kuraishi was competing for his native Iraq and already had qualified for the finals with the best time of the 400-meter heats. He was about to run the first leg of the 400-meter relay when the race was delayed 20 minutes because of rain.

“They should have canceled the race,” he said, shaking his head. “It was too cold and rainy and there wasn’t any room to move around and get warm.”

Twenty meters into the race, Al-Kuraishi suffered a torn quadricep muscle in his left leg. He fell and was unable to pass the baton to a teammate, and Iraq was disqualified. But more importantly Iraq’s top sprinter was lost for the rest of the competition. Al-Kuraishi was carried off the track and taken to a hospital. He never got another chance to compete for a medal.

“I wasn’t looking to win the gold medal,” said Al-Kuraishi, who as a 17-year-old had finished eighth in the 400 meters at the 1960 Games in Rome. “I would have been happy with the silver or bronze.”

Over the years, Al-Kuraishi has learned to smile about the mishap, but he still rubs his left leg as if the pain won’t go away.

“I don’t want any of my athletes or any other runner to ever experience the pain I suffered that day,” he said. “You work too hard to reach that level of competition. You don’t need an injury to spoil it.”

Al-Kuraishi has spent the past nine years studying human anatomy and using the knowledge to teach his athletes proper running techniques. He earned a masters degree in physical education from Cal State Northridge in 1972 and his doctorate in physical education from UC Santa Barbara in 1980.

“I first teach my runners the proper techniques and then how to get into shape and stretch properly,” said Al-Kuraishi, 44, who also has lectured on sports medicine in Guatemala and Mexico. “I think the most common problem is that runners don’t know how to run in a straight line. They step to the side and not straight ahead when they run, and they swing their arms across their body and not up and down. I ask them, ‘How can a runner run fast if different parts of his body are moving in different directions?’ ”

Al-Kuraishi began coaching at North Hollywood High in 1973 where his teams won four East Valley League championships, then spent two season at Birmingham and three at Pierce College before the school dropped its program in 1983.

He began coaching at Reseda in 1985 and last season guided the Regents to an upset victory over defending state champion Taft for the West Valley dual-meet title. Reseda, however, finished a disappointing fourth in the City Section championships.

Among the athletes he has coached are former USC sprinter Kevin Williams and Arizona State sprinter Billy Hunt, who qualified as an alternate for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.

In addition to coaching, Al-Kuraishi has officiated more than 10 international track meets, including the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Last week, he officiated the javelin and shot put events at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis.

“I think the exposure to being around world-class athletes has helped me as a high school coach,” he said. “I picked up different tips and pass them along to my runners.”

Al-Kuraishi has endeavored to learn as much as possible about running and running-related injuries so his athletes can taste some of the success he experienced--without the pain.

“I love track so much they’ll have to carry me away for good before I quit,” he said.