CREATIVE WRITING TSLB 3252

CREATIVE ESSAY

It was a chilly morning with the bird’s chirping and the “cock-a-doodle-do” from the

rooster tearing off the morning silence. Velan is still on his bed with his alarm was snoozed

for the third time by him. Velan’s mother came into the room shouting “Wake up Velan!

Wake up! Have you forgotten that today is your national finals? It’s almost 6.30am. Faster

wake up before I pour water on your face.” Velan immediately jumped out from the bed and

ran to his bathroom.

Velan stood in front of the bathroom mirror and said “Today is the day I’ve been

waiting for years.” He took a deep breath and went to shower. After getting ready, his coach

picked him up to send him to the competition venue. It was a thirty minutes’ journey. During

the journey, Velan was looking out of the windows and recalling his memories to reach this

national final.

To make a long story short, Velan is a tennis player representing Perak. Velan

developed interest in tennis because of his father, Mr Kumaravelan. His father introduced

him to this sport when Velan was seven years old and had been his personal coach since

then. Mr Kumaravelan is just an ordinary security guard. During his younger days, he was

also a state player and was tipped to be Malaysia’s next top tennis player. Sadly, his career

was cut short by a terrific road accident which broker both of his arms. His dream to be

national player was dashed. He still had the passion and began to coach Velan by himself.

Before every training session, Mr Kumaravelan always says to Velan that he wishes to see

him as a national champion. Velan also shared the same dream with his father. All in a

sudden, around two years back when Velan’s father passed away from cardiac arrest while

playing tennis with Velan. They were in the midst of preparation for 2016 Majlis Sukan

Sekolah Malaysia (MSSM) tennis finals. Velan’s family really struggled to overcome his loss.

His mother started to sell flowers to earn money for the family. Velan worked part-time in a

tennis academy. His daily job was picking up the left over tennis balls and cleaning the

tennis court. It was a tough time for his family.

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At that year’s MSSM finals, Velan lost his footing and was very disturbed during the

game. He couldn’t concentrate in the match and lost very badly in the first round itself. A

friend of his father volunteered himself to coach Velan. Slowly he regained his confidence

and managed to make to the 2017 MSSM finals.

Fast forward now, Velan has reached the competition venue and is full of burning

desire to claim the coveted gold medal. Surprisingly the Malaysian Tennis Association (MTA)

announced that the gold medal winner of each category is chosen to represent Malaysia at

Wimbledon Junior in London. This was a morale booster for him. The clock ticked off almost

11.30 am and the weather was already scorching hot.

The match started. It was a tightly contested final. An hour passed, the final was

intense despite the hot weather. At some point of the match, Velan started to feel dizzy

because of dehydration. His vision started to become blur and the opponent return serve hit

Velan’s face and he fell down. The medics rushed to Velan to check his condition. The

opponent was cheeky asking Velan’s coach to concede a walkover. After a while, Velan

regained consciousness and the first thing he said was “I want to win this for my father. I

have my father in me.” The medics gave me him two bottles of water to hydrate himself.

Velan felt the cool water was like a magic potion that made him re-energize. The match

resumed. Velan’s comeback was totally mesmerizing. The crowd was in awe with Velan’s

backhand skills and the opponent was struggling to match him. It was final serve for match

point. Velan took the tennis ball from the ball boy and looked at it for a few second. He said

to himself “Let this serve to be the most powerful ever of mine and my entry to the

international arena representing Malaysia”. Velan served the tennis ball with a great power

and the tennis ball fell just before the outline. His opponent was standstill as the tennis ball

was fast like a flash. The whole crowd was cheering Velan’s name and he was crowned as

the gold medallist of MSSM 2017. He was in tears.

After the prize giving ceremony, he immediately rushed back to his house. Upon

reaching home, his mother hugged Velan and was very proud of his success. Velan went
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straight to his father’s portrait and broke into tears. He said “Appa, I have realised your

dream. Now you can proudly to say that your son is a national champion and going to be the

first batch of Malaysian player playing in Wimbledon Juniors. I’m really sad that you’re not

alive to share this moment with me now but I know you are always watching me from the

heavens.” He left his tennis racquet, the gold medal and a bouquet of flowers at his father’s

portrait as a symbol of respect. He left the place in silence with still tears in his eyes.