Only Stability Can Lead to Championship -- Ho Chi Chung
Ho Chi Chung, 17 years old, is a rising star in the Macao bowling circle. In recent years, he gained good results in several youth competitions such as the Macao Inter-school Cup Bowling Championship and the Asian Schools Bowling Championship successively. Last year, he became a remarkable star in youth bowling world by winning three gold medals in singles, doubles, and individual all-round competitions of the Inter-school Cup.
Ho Chi Chung started playing bowling from six and his potential was soon appreciated by his coach. He joined the Macao Youth Training Team when he was nine. Talking about his dramatic progress in recent years, he expressed special thanks to the technical guidance and experience sharing from his team coach Yiu Man Yau and his teammates Lee Tak Man and Ho Chok San. He also appreciated their pointing out his mistakes directly, enabling him to promptly improve his actions for releasing the bowling ball.
Despite his “timely strike” at critical moments and championship in local events, and the 263 scores in the competition with foreigners, Ho Chi Chung was still looking for improvement of his stability and psychological quality for more progress. Next, he will target at not only the entry ticket of the World Youth Championship in the United State, but also becoming a member in the representative team of Macao in the coming year, with the hope of winning glory for Macao in the future.
Success belongs to the persevering: U I Lok
This year, U I Lok has entered his 6th year of learning martial arts. When he was 9 years old, his parents, who had a background in martial arts, encouraged him to learn martial arts. So he entered a youth martial arts school and in the second year, was selected into the training team, in which, he had six days of training per week guided by coaches Zeng Tieming and Jia Rui. In 2012 and 2013, he won a bronze medal in the category of “Art of Fencing” at the 4th World Junior Wushu Championships and 7th Asian Junior Wushu Championships respectively. Since 2012, he has been participating in the Macao Junior Wushu Championships and won three gold medals in total.
Besides Wushu, I Lok also learns other sports, including dancing. At this year’s Macao Open DanceSport Competition, he has won five championships for Latin Dance in two junior groups. Speaking of how to coordinate training and school, he confessed, “It is difficult to excel in both. But no matter how late I went home, I would finish my school homework and if I could not, I had to continue to finish it until early next morning.” I Lok once wanted to give up martial arts, but thanks to his parents’ encouragement, he has persevered. For many years, he has been used to such tension and given up much, but he never regretted.
“I was not born to excel in Wushu and am no match for others in flexibility and strength. So I have to have more training in stretching and strength. But I have a good sense of pace, especially in competitions.” I Lok is satisfied with his progress and hopes to continue to represent Macao in the World Junior Wushu Championships.
Aim High and Keep Getting Better - Ieong Sai U
Our volleyball teams are going through the process of getting new blood. Early this year at the China-Macao-Hong Kong competitions, Macao sent the younger team players to play in the games. Amongst these younger players, one stood out - Ieong Sai U. His spike shots almost enabled the Macao team to beat Guangdong. Ieong Sai U began playing volleyball only when he was in Form one and so he is not really a long-time player. Nonetheless, he practised hard to make up for the time. Six days out of a week, he would practise with his senior schoolmates. Because of his perseverance and inherent athletic gifts, he quickly became the school team's main player. In the following years, he represented Macao to play in the first National Youth Games and the China Hong Kong Macao volleyball games.
Although his performance got him good appraisals from the coach, Ieong was not satisfied with himself. He humbly said that the National Youth Games was his first competition and he was very nervous and if it had not been for the senior players' guidance, he could not have performed so well. In the second competition, Ieong realized that he was not physically fit enough and he was lacking in height and therefore, he decided to increase his training on physical fitness and strength to make up for this. This summer, Ieong is poised to strengthen these two weaknesses and prepare himself for the upcoming local and international competitions this year.
As the potential candidate to the Macao team, Ieong Sai U does not give himself too much pressure and continues to practice volleyball with his counterparts of the same age. Ieung said that even within the younger team, there are a lot of players with good potentials such as Leong Ka Him who was playing above par when they were in Form three. So Ieong knows that in order to stay competitive, he must not slack. Ieong plans to study in Australia after high school, and he has made it clear that he may not be in Macao but he will make use of every opportunity there to keep practicing volleyball. If he can manage to be acknowledged for athletic excellence and if he can arrange the time for competition, he is willing to play for the Macao team.
