Hong Kong’s first pro weightlifter in 12 years had to compete in tracksuit borrowed from footballer, learned to lift from YouTube
- Matthew Tung achieved Hong Kong’s best ever men’s Asian Championships placing on his professional debut in Olympic-style weightlifting
- He had to acquire his own tracksuit, and used the gym at Hong Kong Sports Institute, where he works, during his lunch break
Matthew Tung Jia-yuan hopes to give Hong Kong a regular presence in international weightlifting after producing the city’s best performance in a men’s professional competition, despite having to fund the whole endeavour himself.
Tung did not even receive a Hong Kong athlete’s tracksuit for his professional debut in Olympic-style weightlifting last month at the Asian Championships in Uzbekistan. So he borrowed one.
“It was loaned to me from a friend,” Tung, 24, said. “They represented Hong Kong in football. It’s not mine.”
Yet he came away with fifth place in the 96kg division, and the distinction of being Hong Kong’s first representative in the sport in more than a decade. The last had been Yu Weili, who was seventh in the women’s 53kg event at the 2012 Olympics.
Now Tung has had a taste of it, he wants more.