Patrick Zehnder is the epitome of a great coach. He is the only Singaporean coach to have produced an Asian Games track champion.

That protégés of Zehnder's was the legendary middle-distance queen, Chee Swee Lee, the golden girl of Singapore athletics who won an Asian Games gold medal in 1974 at the 7th edition of the games held in Tehran (Iran).

Swee Lee set a new Asian Games record with her time of 55.08s, an achievement that not only made her Asia's best at the time. It was also to be the first and last time a female Singaporean would achieve golden success at the Asian Games track discipline.

Prior to Swee Lee's historic triumph at Tehran, Patrick Zehnder was awarded the 1973 Coach of the Year award, the accolade being in recognition of his ability to develop athletes under his wing into championship material.

It was Zehnder's keen ability to discern raw gems that led to his discovery of Swee Lee. When she was just 10 years old and a student at Telok Kurau West Primary; Zehnder first watched her blaze to victory in school competitions and brought her under his wing - it was to be the beginning of a very successful coach-athlete partnership, culminating a decade later in Swee Lee's remarkable win at the 7th Asian Games in Tehran.

Under the tutelage of the astute Zehnder, Swee Lee represented the Republic at the 1969 SEAP Games (Burma), winning silver in the 400m. She repeated her silver medal feat twice at the subsequent games in 1971 (KL) and 1973 (S'pore).

A year later ('74), Zehnder and Swee Lee's coup de grace took place in Tehran. She was 19 years old, having been under Zehnder's care for close to a decade.

One year on ('75) Swee Lee's mentor, Zehnder, saw his budding apprentice finally clinched gold at the 400m SEAP games (Bangkok) - coming home in a scintillating time of 56.50 seconds.

Swee Lee was by far his most talented athlete, but after more than 20 years of training further talents, the likes of C Kunalan, Gan Bee Wah, Godfrey Jalleh and Cheah Kim Teck, Zehnder left the national athletics team in 1985. His departure from the scene was a truly big loss for Singapore athletics.

Today, the man affectionately known as "the Beard" is still involved in the sport he loves so passionately - coaching youngsters at the school and club level.

As the saying goes, "Behind every great sportsman is a great coach". For Patrick Zehnder that adage is truly an applicable one.