|
|
Roads have been smooth for Hong Kong's best cyclist, Wong Kam-Po, since he won all the major road races in Asia and earned the fame of "God of cycling racing in Asia". Although he had suffered a setback in Athens Olympics 2004 and then experienced the worst of his career for almost a year, he has now put his focus back on Beijing Olympics 2008, hoping to perform his best in the last chapters of his racing career.
It took only one year for "Ah Po" to make his debut in winning the Asian Junior Cycling Championships in 1991. A strife with teammates during Olympics preparation in 1992 put him out of the Hong Kong Team for a time, until he met Shen Jiang-Kong in 1994 whom took his career to a new direction and marked the beginning of a new era in Hong Kong cycling at the same time. After ten years of training and racing, Wong Kam-Po won a bunch of medals in the Asian Games, National Games and Asian Championships, thus consolidated his position in Asia. His coach, Shen Jiang-Kong then set new goals with him at World Championships and gave priority to tracking events, in order to compete in Olympic Games.
Wong Kam-Po ended in the 24th place in 2004 Athens Olympics and this bad memory haunted him for a while. He recalled, "I thought I was well-prepared, but in that less than one hour's race I just couldn't bring out the best of myself. I fell into frustration and self-blame for one year." Yet this strike never meant the end of Wong Kam-Po's career. With his natural born enthusiasm to the sport and Shen's encouragement, he decided to march for the Doha Asian Games 2006 and Beijing Olympic Games 2008 again. He hoped to enjoy the last period of his athletic life and leave some more good memories in it.
When talked about his childhood, Wong Kam Po humbly said that he was too naughty and should had spent more time on study. To make up for this, he is now studying in Shanghai Sports Institute, alongside Chinese Olympic hero Liu Xiang. He plans to finish his study in four to six years' time. "Let things happen," he said, when being asked about his plan after retiring from athlete's career.
Wealth and fame "Ah Po" has achieved during these years may not be very astonishing, but cycling did give him social recognition and a decent life. But what he treasured most was experiences and lessons learned in training and racings. He thought the fruitful and exciting life as an athlete truly taught him the meaning of sport. He now learned how to be positive towards life. He said with strong certainty, "I now have nothing to fear." Besides personal achievement, Wong Kam-Po hopes that new cyclists will come up and take his place in Hong Kong team. He suggested to new comers, how much you involve and sacrifice, how well you grow. Besides, communication between teammates and with the coach is crucial, because inter-personal relations directly affect your training and results.
|
|
Related Information Download
Archived Articles |
|
