Ruth Hunt's imminent departure as Hong Kong's national triathlon coach will bring to an end almost 30 years of total dedication to one of the world's most challenging endurance sports.
A former world top-10 Ironman athlete, Hunt has been a familiar figure at triathlon events since she first took up the sport soon after arriving in Hong Kong in 1982.
She took on the post of national coach 16 years ago and has guided select groups of elite athletes to achieve impressive results and international recognition. Her most memorable achievement was to steer Daniel Lee Chi-wo to a silver medal at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.
'We were expecting Daniel to win a medal because he had trained and raced exceptionally well in the build-up,' Hunt, 55, said. 'The silver medal was incredible, but then we found out nine months later that the gold medal winner - Dmitriy Gaag, of Kazakhstan - had been banned for testing positive for a banned substance, so then we started to think about what might have been.'
Professional sport is often littered with disappointments, so Hunt simply got Lee to focus his training on the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and as he had already competed in the Athens 2004 Games he had the necessary confidence to go forward and do what was necessary to qualify for his second Olympic trip.
Hunt was born in the Lake District in Britain but grew up in Richmond in Surrey. After graduating from Warwick University she worked for four years as a PE teacher in Bristol, and then accepted a position at St George's School in Kowloon Tong.