Chan Yee-ki defends junior 10km title but still has more to prove

Rebecki Chan Yee-ki won her fourth title in the past five years in the junior 10km race on Sunday, but will not rest until she appears on the podium with the fastest women.

Although a specialist 800m and 1,500m runner, 17-year-old Chan (pictured) also excels in distance running and had no trouble winning her event yesterday. But her time of 40:24 was 47 seconds outside the third place in the women's overall.

"I want a podium finish in the women's overall. Today I only aimed at defending my title, not anything else, as my inter-school competition is approaching and I didn't want to run full speed.

"Actually I was quite close to reaching this goal over the past years," said Chan, who captains her athletics team at Diocesan Girls' School. "Last time I finished overall fourth and I guess I will have another try next year when I defend my junior title for the last time." Chan finished more than 40 seconds outside her personal best [39:38].

"It's never easy to perform consistently well in the same competition every year," said Chan. "There are always younger challengers who may take over, just like what I did to the older girls when I was green some years ago."

She added: "Although I focus on 800m and 1,500m, I have long-distance pacing exercises in my training programme. These has helped me do well in races of a much longer distance."

She is a member of the Watsons Athletic Club and has between three and five training sessions each week.