<figure id="attachment_3284397" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3284397" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3284397 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/38b7c4f3-jeffrey-kok-emel-pic-160226-1.webp" alt="Jeffrey Kok" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3284397" class="wp-caption-text">A quiet force in Malaysian sport, Jeffrey Kok believed the greatest victories were the lives rebuilt, not the medals won.</figcaption></figure>
KUALA LUMPUR: There are those who chase medals, and there are those who remind us what those medals were meant to stand for.
Jeffrey Kok Chee Leong belonged to the latter.
He did not seek the spotlight and did not measure success in applause or headlines.
Yet in a quiet archery range in Glo Damansara, he was doing something far more enduring by helping people find their way back.
On Feb 14, Kok died at the age of 57 after battling cancer. But those who knew him will remember the way he lived — with courage, generosity, and an unwavering belief in others.
Even as his own time grew uncertain, Kok never withdrew. He continued to show up for his students, for former athletes, for anyone who needed a steady hand.
<figure id="attachment_3284398" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3284398" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3284398 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/56ea52d6-jeffrey-kok-emel-pic-160226-2.webp" alt="Jeffrey Kok" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3284398" class="wp-caption-text">Jeffrey Kok gave former national squash champion Kenneth Low (right) a way back to dignity, one day at a time.</figcaption></figure>
Because he understood something many had forgotten: that the end of a sporting career should never mean the end of a person’s worth.
At Best Archery Centre, the arrows flew each day. But what mattered was not where they landed. It was what they set in motion.
“Jeffrey saw beyond faded titles and forgotten names. He saw people,” said Noorul Ariffin, the former chairman of the national athletes welfare foundation (Yakeb).
When former national squash player Kenneth Low fell on hard times, illness and circumstance had reduced a once-celebrated athlete to the margins. Kok did not see decline.
Noorul said: “He saw someone who still had something to give. He offered him work, adjusted to his condition, and stood by him through recovery.”
Slowly, Low found his footing again, not as a relic of the past, but as a man reclaiming his place in the present, added Noorul.
<figure id="attachment_3284399" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3284399" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3284399 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/c47950cd-jeffrey-kok-emel-pic-160226-3.webp" alt="Jeffrey Kok" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3284399" class="wp-caption-text">Once a national bowling star, Lisa Kwan now guides the next generation, with Jeffrey Kok having given her a place to begin again.</figcaption></figure>
Lisa Kwan’s journey was no different. Once a bowling queen, she had drifted into years of uncertainty, taking whatever work she could find.
“Jeffrey recognised in her the same discipline and warmth that had once defined her success,” said Noorul.
At his centre, she began again, guiding young archers, sharing her experience, and rediscovering a sense of belonging.
There were others, too. Stories less known, but no less significant. Each one a quiet testament to a man who refused to let people fade into obscurity.
“Everyone deserves a second chance,” Kok once said.
But what he practised went beyond second chances. He made people feel seen again.
What set Kok apart was not just his actions, but his intent. There was no grand narrative, no need for recognition.
He did what he believed was right, consistently and without hesitation.
<figure id="attachment_3284400" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3284400" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3284400 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/c84ecc09-jeffrey-kok-emel-pic-160226-4.webp" alt="Jeffrey Kok" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3284400" class="wp-caption-text">In every young archer he trained, Jeffrey Kok saw not talent alone, but the promise of resilience and character.</figcaption></figure>
To him, sport was never about podium finishes. It was about shaping lives, and, when needed, helping to steady them again.
Even as cancer tested him, it did not define him. Those around him saw a man who embraced each day fully, who continued to encourage, to challenge, and to lift others up.
He spoke often about doing one’s best, not in pursuit of glory, but as a way of honouring the time we are given.
That belief became his quiet strength. And it became a source of strength for others.
Today, at Best Archery Centre, the rhythm continues. Bows are drawn. Arrows are released. Young athletes learn focus and discipline, while those who once stood on podiums discover new ways to contribute.
In that space, Kok&#8217;s presence remains, not in words, but in what he set in motion.
He may be gone, but what he built continues in every life he touched, in every person who found their footing again because he chose not to look away.
In a world quick to celebrate victory and quicker still to forget, Kok chose a different measure.
He chose to stand with those left behind.
And in doing so, he showed that the truest mark of a life is not what we achieve for ourselves, but what we make possible for others.
The wake is at Nirvana 2, Level M2 Pearl Suite, <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/search/16,+Jalan+Dewan+Bahasa,+Bukit+Seputeh,+Kuala+Lumpur?entry=gmail&amp;source=g" target="_blank" rel="noopener">16, Jalan Dewan Bahasa, Bukit Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur</a>, from 10am to 10pm.
The cortege will leave for cremation at Nirvana Crematorium, Shah Alam, on Wednesday at 9am.

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