Awyong Liang Qi – SEA Games 2015 Athletics Squad

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Name: Awyong Liang Qi

Height: 1.75m

Weight: 67kg

Date of Birth: 13 January 1995 (20yrs)

Personal Best(s): 14.96s 3.5m/s & 15.02s 0.9m/s (Men 110mH)

Career Highlight(s): –

Q) What are your hopes, dream and target this SEA Games?

I hope to achieve a timing of 14.6 sec or better this time round. My current personal best is at 14.96s. Apart from that, I would also like to meet and interact with other athletes from all over the world.

Q) How’s your preparation for the SEA Games?

Recently, I have been doing more training to work on my power and also conditioning work, as well as improving on my hurdling technique. Hopefully my efforts will pay off during the SEA Games.

Q) What are some of the biggest challenges in your sports career so far leading to SEA Games and your athletics career?

Before my graduation from Singapore Polytechnic, one of my challenges was to juggle between my trainings, my studies and spending time with my family and friends. Sometimes I feel envious of my friends who have more time to study or to hang out with their friends and family.

As the SEA games approaches, I see the need to prioritise my trainings over my other commitments and focus on achieving the goals that I have set.

For my athletics career in the future, a lot of it will depend on my condition after my national service and whether I am able to pick up from where I left off.

Q) How did you specialise in your particular event? Why this event, what’s the attraction?

I started hurdling since Primary Three. There was one training session when my coach set up a few hurdles and asked the team for volunteers to try clearing them.
So, I decided to give it a go and in the end my coach selected me to be a hurdler. Hurdling was not my only individual event back then; i ran the 100m sprint too.

However, i did not perform as well in the 100m as compared to the hurdling event, where i could at least make it to finals. There are two main parts to hurdling: clearing the hurdles and sprinting. For people like me who cannot sprint as fast as other pure sprinters, i can work on my technique such that I will be able to clear the hurdles faster than my competitors to make up for my slower sprinting speed between hurdles.

Q) Who is your coach, tell us more about him/her. Also a mention of your previous coaches.

My current coach is Mr John Seem. He is a very technical coach, which is why i feel that my technique has improved under his coaching. He has been trying to correct some of my bad hurdling habits. However, I can be quite inconsistent and tend to default back to the hurdling technique that I have been doing in the past. I am still working hard to follow the advice from my coach and improve further. I am thankful for his guidance because without it, i would not have been able to make it into the SEA games squad.

My previous coach was Coach Slava back when i was in training in Singapore Sports School. As puberty hit me late (when I was in Secondary 4), i did not compete in as many major competitions as my teammates. However, he did not give up on me and still continued to train and motivate me. During meetings with my parents, he will always say the same thing: “Liang Qi is very good; it’s just that he needs to grow taller”. I have since grown taller and feel that all the training I put in back then paid off.

My Primary coach was Mr Serjit Singh aka Mr Bone. He was quite well known back then because of his whistle, which you could hear from the 100m starting line all the way to the finishing line. I am extremely thankful to have trained under him, as he was the one who introduced hurdling to me. Without him, i would probably have been still stuck in the Choir. Also, he was the one who asked me to go for the Sports School Open House and personally introduced me to Coach Slava. So, it was because of him that i found out about the Sports School and enrolled in it! That was where I met a lot of awesome staff and friends that i still keep in contact with today. I do not think i would have continued hurdling if I had not made it to Sports School. It saddens me to not be able to thank him personally as I have lost contact with him. I do hope that he will read and see my message for him.

Q) Do you take care of your nutrition and diet? Your opinion on supplements and food.

I do not really have a very strict nutrition and diet plan. I try to eat clean as much as possible and avoid eating junk food. I used to take supplements to aid in my growth so I have no objections to taking supplements. In fact, they can help in muscle recovery after trainings so i would not mind taking them.

Q) Aside from athletics, what else interest you? You could say the other part of your life beyond athletics.

I would love to try out other sports like gymnastics, diving and martial arts. I love singing as well, even though I think I sound worse now after breaking my voice. I also love eating! I would love travel around to explore and find great food.

Q) How do you fit in your training/competing with your family and studies/work?

It is very challenging to fit training with my family and studies. I train every evening except for Sunday, so it is sometimes very difficult to spend time with my family. However, I try my best to find time to be with them. For example, my mother takes time off on Mondays, so I usually keep my Mondays free to spend time with her during the holidays. I always feel jealous of my friends who can work during the holidays. As much as I wish to take up a part-time job, i cannot find a suitable one that accommodates my training schedule.

Q) Share with the readers, some aspects of your training regime.

I train 3x technical training, 4x gym sessions per week.

Q) What are your long term athletics goals?

I hope that after my National Service, I’ll be able to resume training properly and return back to my current performance. Of course, I would certainly want to compete in SEA games again, if possible.

Q) What advice do you have for young aspiring athletes?

Never give up despite meeting with failure. The training that you have put in now will definitely benefit you in the future. So keep working hard and chase your dreams! Also, reach for the skies, for even if you fail, you will fall on the stars.