PROMISING ATHLETE: At the tender age of 12, Grace Wong emerged the youngest winner ever in the shot putt of the recent Sibu Open Track & Field Championship. She aims to cap the year with a flourish by bagging gold in the coming 7th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Areas (BIMP-EAGA) Friendship Games to be held in the Philippines from Dec 8 to 11.
SIBU: Upcoming state junior shot-putter, Grace Wong Xiu Mei is aiming to end the year on a high note by bagging gold at the coming 7th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Areas (BIMP-EAGA) Friendship Games to be held in the Philippines from Dec 8 to 11.
“This is a huge mountain to climb and I have been training hard the past few days to offer at least a token of a challenge to my opponents,” said the 12-year-old Primary Six pupil of SJK Hua Nan, Sarikei of the coming event.
The promising putter had been a revelation for the past months with her sterling performances at state-level and national-level athletic events.
Her most high profile victory was at the recent Pahang Sukma when she heaved the iron ball to a distance of 11.78m to win gold and beating the other older competitors.
Last September, she became the youngest person to win the women’s shot-putt in the Sibu Open Track & Field Championship at the tender age of 12 with a distance of 11.02m throw which was far from her best.
Grace, who is of mixed parentage, blamed her drop in form during the Sibu Open Track & Field on lack of training as was preparing for her Primary Six Assessment Test.
With the examination over now, the indomitable Grace had returned to full time training with her coach Ling Neng Tung, undergoing two to three hours of daily training for physical fitness, endurance, speed and throwing skills.
The upcoming BIMP-EAGA games will be her last for the season and she is bent on bagging gold to cap the year on a high note.
Ling, when contacted, said starting next year, Grace would switch to hammer throw instead of the shot putt as she would have a better chance to dominate and stamp her superiority in the that particular event.
Asked whether Grace will still be fielded in the shot-putt event, Ling said possibility is always there but the coach admitted that her performance in hammer throw would be affected as it would be difficult to excel in both events at the same time.
Ling has been renowned for coaching and producing champion hammer throwers in the likes of national record holders Jackie Wong and Tiong Mee Yien.
“Grace possesses all the qualities to become a future champion. Her size and her built – at 160 cm and weighing 90kg – would be enough to send her rivals deep into submission even before they lift the ball.
“Moreover, she is strong, robust and is poised to take over the mantle once the senior retire,” he added on the promising athlete who took part in the 88th Malaysia Athletics Open held in Bukit Jalil recently to test her skill and speed in the hammer throw.
Surprisingly, she returned with a respectable 7th position with a throw of 35.77m even though the field of competitors included athletes from Taiwan and Iran.
“For a 12-year old, achieving the distance of 35.77m was considered as very rare…mark my word, she is certainly a star to watch. Given time and exposure, she may be able to rewrite the national hammer throw record of 58.79m currently held by 25-year-old Tan Song Hwa,” he said.