Oral History of Sports in Mashhad:

First Athletics Gold Medalist in Khorasan Province

Gholamreza Azari Khakestar
Translated by Abbas Hajihashemi

2015-10-17

Seyyed Nouroding Ale-Taha in a national tournament

Oral history makes possible the review of memories and experiences of the first athletes from Khorasan Province who stepped in national and international athletic events and won medals for their city and country. The following are accounts of the first national gold medalist of Khorasan Province.
Seyyed Nouroding Ale-Taha
The son of Haj Seyyed Ali Ale-Taha, also known as Seyyed Al-Araghin, Nourodin Ale-Taha was born in Sarab Mashad neighborhood, in October 1923. His father was a renowned cleric and ran a notary office on Khosravi Street. Besides his office work, he had put up all his assets as collateral with Bank Sepah to rent farms in Sis Abad Village. He loved the region and would spend all he had to rent more farms. After his death in 1935, the bank seized all his properties because of a default in loan payments and the efforts of his wife, Lady Mah Rokhsar, to get at least a section of their properties from the bank proved to be a failure. Nourodin was one of 8 children in his family.
For his school years, Nourodin went to Hemmat, Ferdowsi and Shahreza schools. For further studies, he enrolled for a 4-year medicine program which he dropped out as he found autopsy sessions unbearable. Therefore, he went to agriculture school in Karaj and received his diploma in 1945.
Track and field was one of his time's most popular sports and numerous regional events were arranged by schools in Mashad.
"Running was in my blood. I was about 8 years of age when I used to jump off the carriage and run nearly 5 kilometers in steep roads to Sis Abad," he once said about his zeal for running. "My father kept telling the carriage rider to slow down so I wouldn’t get too tired, but I always told him to go faster and faster. Years later in high school, track and field competitions were held between Mashad high schools. Our biggest rival was Ferdowsi high school. I started running track in high school. My coaches always encouraged me in running. I always finished first in the events.
"In 1939, Mr. Masoumizadeh was the first athlete in Mashad to win a bronze medal for throwing weights. After I won school events without being trained under any coaches, I was advised to attend Sadabad sports center for "more professional training". The center had two dirt pitches and a track where we exercised.
"In 1939, national track and field games officially began and champions from across the country gathered in Tehran for the games. One day I asked Dr. Hussein Banaei and Manouchehr Mehran: Why don’t athletes from Khorasan Province win gold and silver medals in the games?
"It is because of the geography of Khorasan that speed runners do not prosper," they said. This upset me pretty much but did not stop me from exercising in our sub-standard track. In 1941, because of World War II and occupation of Iran by Allies, the games were canceled but a tournament was supposed to be arranged in Mashad in the presence of the Shah who was scheduled to visit the city. Everything was prepared for the event but the visit was canceled. However, the match was arranged in the presence of a number of local officials and I finished first in the match. I also won a number of other events in Khorasan and was chosen to attend the national games for the next year.
"In 1942, there were 8 of us from Mashad who went to Tehran for the games. They accommodated us in Abbas Abad Military Site. Out team won a silver medal in a relay race which was held for the first time and Mr. Hassan-pour, from our team, won a bronze medal in the 100 meters relay competition. This was a great honor for Khorasan. We were warmly welcome in the city on our return. A foreign coach was invited to the games that year from whom I learned a lot. By employing his lessons, I managed to win the next year's 400-meter relay race which was the first gold medal for Khorasan Province in the national games.
"Next year, the games were held with the country's best runners. However, I won the 200-meter race but came second in the 400-meter."
Ale-Taha won the first national gold medal for Khorasan Province in track and field. In 1950, he was invited to the national team and was sent to India's track and field event for Asian games. But because he went sick during the games, he failed to win any matches.
After his retirement as a runner, he served as coach and referee in track and field matches. He also held several positions in Khorasan Province's sports administration.