TriHK Newsletter featuring Team Sonic Junior Triathletes
Two Team Sonic Junior Triathletes were featured in recent newsletter of Hong Kong Triathlon Association. They shared the experience at Youth Olympic Game in the past summer. Read on!
Hi everyone! I am Chelsea Hung, one of the members of the National Team and a representative of 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games.I am very glad that TriHK gave me an opportunity to share my experience at these game. Since this is my first time participate in a world class international competition, I was impressed by their professional setting of the venue, I also valued the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge throughout the competition.The activities and the life inside the Youth Olympic Village (YOV) are the most memorable. As all of the athletes were living together and eating in the same dining hall, I met my competitors everyday, allowing us to engage in activities together. This allowed me to share my triathlon experiences and chat easily with the overseas athletes. Within the Youth Olympic Games concept, the Nanjing 2014 Culture and Education Programme (CEP) was designed to be a unique and impactful experience to inspire young participants. A rich and diverse choice of activities provided sports and life skills learning to athletes and other young participants, enabling them to grow in their sporting career and to promote a healthy lifestyle. Activities were organised both inside and outside the YOV venue. YOG truly inspires young people to become part of the Olympic Movement, embrace Olympic values and carry forward the Olympic spirit, so it is really a memorable experience.
Hello, I am Michael Lam. During the summer I represented Hong Kong and participated in the Youth Olympic Games for Triathlon. But before I was able to participate at the Youth Olympic Games I had to go through a series of selection races that included the 2014 Zhenjiang ASTC Triathlon Premium Asian Cup where I had to come top 2 and the 2014 Burabay ASTC Triathlon Asian YOG Qualifier where I had to come top 5.
After successfully qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games I had set a goal of coming top 10 out of 32 other competitors, which at the time seemed very hard to accomplish but after three months of both physical and mental training and support from my team, my goal seemed very realistic.
On race day I felt very relaxed and pumped up and this allowed me to compete at my top form. During the 750m swim I came out of the water in the leading group which allowed me to cycle in the first pack for the 20 km bike leg. Unfortunately as I finished my first lap of the bike leg it started to rain and I knew that I would be more dangerous for me, riding on a dry weather bike setup. I went around the corners and turns more cautiously and slowly. On the second lap of the bike leg I was able to narrowly avoid a crash in front of me that took out an Austrian athlete and a Mexican athlete but unfortunately on the last lap an American athlete skidded around a turn, which resulted in me crashing into him and having to put my chain back on. After the crash I had fallen back around 10 positions and entered the run at 16th place, which I managed to maintain for the duration of the 5km run.
Overall I felt that I was able to meet a lot of different people and make a lot of new friends. Most importantly I was able to gain a lot of experience that will help me perform better in even larger competitions in the future.