By Ahmad Nazrin Syahmi Mohamad Arif
KUCHING, Aug 22 (Bernama) -- When Federal Territories long-distance runner Kristian Tung first took up running at 10, he was not very good at it.
“Everyone was beating me,” he said.
Yet, Kristian never doubted his potential. Today, standing proudly atop the podium for the third time at the 2024 Malaysia Games (SUKMA), he is a testament to the power of hard work, dedication, discipline, passion and perseverance.
“I just loved running from a young age and, for some reason, I thought I had the ability even though everyone was beating me. I just always had to believe that I would compete to be the best one day and that belief is paying off.
“I started running for my school as early as a 10-year-old but I only took it seriously when I was 15… I just love the feeling of not only training, I do love training, but competing and winning is the best feeling ever,” he said after winning the men’s 5,000 metres (m) at the Sarawak Stadium here today.
Having bagged the 10,000m and 1,500m gold medals on Tuesday (Aug 20), Kristian powered his way to victory in the 5,000m in 15 minutes and 20.50 seconds (s), with Shawn Roshan Singh (15:27.37s) and Muhammad Farooq Muhammad Zubair Kanan (15:30.45s), both from Perak, coming in second and third.
The United Kingdom-based 20-year-old won the 10,000m in 33:48.049s and the 1,500m in 4:04.62s.
Last month, Kristian clocked a personal best of 14:31s for 5,000m, qualifying him for the next year’s SEA Games in Thailand but narrowly missing out on the Asian Championships.
“It will be my first SEA Games. I’m so excited because I always dreamed of running for Malaysia since I was young.
“Despite not being as good as many of my peers back then, I kept training hard. The lockdown (during the COVID-19 pandemic) was tough, but I pushed through, running 130 kilometres (km) per week and it’s paid off now. Hopefully, this will pave the way for a successful jump to the Asian Championships next year,” he said.
Kristian is studying Sports Science and Mathematics at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom and has no problem dividing his time between studies and sports.
“The university makes it very easy because Loughborough is a sports university, so they allocate time for training and lessons, and the whole group always join at the same time, so no one is left alone,” he said.
-- BERNAMA
