Unsung heroes

Name Alvin Chui Wui-chung
School Choi Hung Estate Catholic Secondary School
Grade Form Six
Sport Cross-country and athletics

Achievements

Alvin, 17, is a long-distance runner from The Citizen Athletic Association. He came ninth out of 186 runners at the Coca-Cola Running Fun 2011, a 10km competition held last month. Alvin was also 19th out of 228 participants in the Southern District Cross Country Race.

He is captain of his school's cross-country team. He came ninth in the Grade A boys' category of the 2010-11 Division Two Inter-school Cross Country Competition and 10th in the 2010-11 Division One Inter-school Athletics Competition.

Soundbite

'The number of people in our cross-country team grew rapidly years ago, but now it is getting smaller,' Alvin says. 'We haven't had enough athletes for the past two years of inter-school races and so didn't get enough ranking points. We were downgraded to Division Two last year, but we lacked one runner for each grade.

'The results of a team are determined by the top six runners among eight representatives in each grade competition. But we only had six runners for each grade and our last one couldn't finish within the required time, so we got no points in the end, even though our runners didn't do badly. It was a big disappointment for all of us.

'Luckily we have enough runners this year and I am confident that we will win team prizes for A and B grades.

'I joined the school team in Form One. But I quit after a year of training because there were so many good runners. I wasn't fit enough to represent my school and I was disappointed. After a year, I realised I loved running and I rejoined the team before the Form Three school year started.

'Nowadays I see some junior runners who face challenges like I did and may decide to leave the team. I share my story with them. As runners, I think we should face the obstacles ahead and not try to avoid them.

'The coach of our school team, Cheuk Kin-san, is very caring. He has Hong Kong team students, but he pays the same attention to everyone he teaches. Under his guidance, I run faster now.'

From his coach

'Alvin maintains a good image and is a role model for younger runners at school,' says Cheuk.

'He has improved a lot in co-ordinating his body movements and he also thinks more positively now.'

Ambitions

'I have four more races before I take a break for the HKDSE exam,' says Alvin.

'I will help my school fight for overall prizes at the inter-school cross-country competition next month. I will also join three more long-distance competitions and end my season in mid-December.

'Last but not least, I hope to finish the 10km run within 38minutes next month.'