Daniel Lee Chi-wo has put a year of frustration behind him and is looking forward to performing for Hong Kong. 'I'm fairly fit now and hopefully free from shin splints,' said Lee after a confidence-boosting win in the ITU Subic Asian Cup Triathlon in the Philippines last weekend. Lee, who became Hong Kong's first Olympic triathlon representative in Athens two years ago, had to endure a frustrating 2005, in which he hardly raced at all due to shin split problems. 'My training this year is focused on the World Cup near Beijing in mid-August and then the Asian Games in December. But I still need to compete in international events to gain world ranking points and also to help the Hong Kong Triathlon Association to maintain its elite sports status.' Lee said the Philippines race, his fourth event this year, was not as well attended as in previous years, and he expected to be among the challengers for a podium finish. 'The prize money was well down this year so some of the top guys stayed away,' said Lee, 29. 'I know the Subic course very well and I knew all of the other elite athletes in the field, but because it was very hot I decided to stay with the pack on the 1.5km swim and the 40km bike ride and then make a break for it on the 10km run.' Lee's race tactics obviously worked out very well, as by the time he crossed the finish line he enjoyed a lead of more than a minute over Kodo Hiramatsu of Japan. Lee finished in two hours, three minutes and 14 seconds. Lee will race again in an ITU event in China at the end of this month and will then travel to South Africa next month for a World Cup event. He will then go to China in July for a month of altitude training in preparation for the World Cup. National triathlon coach Ruth Hunt was full of praise for Lee's progress. 'Daniel's now training well and coming back into form so it's very good to see him win another race,' Hunt said. 'His win will certainly help us to maintain out position as one of the 13 focus sports. 'However, our younger competitors are also doing very well so we've now got quite a lot of depth to our squad, which means that Daniel doesn?t have to do it all on his own.'
