By LYNETTE KOH
PHOTOGRAPHS JASON HO
THE THREE PASSIONATE SPORTSMEN REVEAL THE BEAUTY OF EACH OF THEIR GAMES.
THE POLO-PLAYING PASTOR
"IT’S A GREAT HONOUR TO REPRESENT MY COUNTRY AND IT’S NICE,AT MY AGE, TO BE ABLETO PLAY AT SUCH A COMPETITIVE LEVEL."
— LAWRENCE KHONG, POLO PLAYER AND PASTOR
A broken collarbone, a cracked rib, and countless minor injuries — these are just a few of the afflictions that national polo player Lawrence Khong has faced since he first took up the sport 15 years ago.
And yet, the 55-year-old — who is also the founder and senior pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church — said with a grin: “I’m known for having divine protection!”
Hearing about some of the cringe-inducing injuries that have befallen other players, however,one understands why he feels watched over.Lawrence recalled the time a ball was flying at him at full speed: “I quickly dodged, but the ball hit the guy behind me. All his teeth were knocked out.”
In another polo-related accident in 1999, his wife, Nina, suffered a brain haemorrhage and was unconscious for three days.
Still, the couple remain undaunted by the perilsof polo.
The day after Lawrence broke his collarbone —an injury he sustained when his horse tripped while turning, causing him to fall off — they went ahead with a planned ski trip to Whistler in Canada. Laugh-ing, he related: “I was skiing in a sling. Sometimes I’d fall, and the pain would be excruciating. I would take 15 minutes just to get up! But that’s the polo spirit.”
This resolute spirit — and may be a little divine intervention — enabled Lawrence and his team to emerge victorious against the Malaysian team a fewyears ago at a Singapore Polo Club invitational tournament.
The Malaysian contingent arrived with 23 horses,while the Singapore side had some 15 horses. At the end of the three-day tournament, “our horses were sotired, but we managed to hold off the Malaysian team, leaving us just half a goal behind”, Lawrence recalled
A Malaysian foul gave them a penalty, but in a momentary lapse, his teammate hit the ball way offthe goal while taking the penalty.
Said Lawrence: “I spurred my horse to gallop towards the ball. I tried to get it, but the ball hit my horse’s hind leg and went into the goal! At that moment, the bell went off and we won the match.”
Hopefully, such luck will be with Lawrence and his teammates as they head to Thailand to participate in the SEA Games in December, the first time that polo has been included in the regional sports event since its debut in 1983.
Said Lawrence: “It’s a great honour to represent my country and it’s nice, at my age, to be able to play at such a competitive level.”
Proving that age is just a number,Lawrence said: “I’m playing at my best right now. For the last three years, I’ve been working out with a personal trainer as well. The only time I’ve been fitter was during my National Service days —though that was a very, very long time ago!”
He concluded: “I want to keep playing polo until I go to the grave.”
GIVING IT HIS BEST SHOT
ARCHERY’S VERY ADDICTIVE. IT’S THESPEED AND THAT SATIS-FYING ‘THK’ SOUND THEARROW MAKES WHEN ITHITS THE TARGET. ITGIVES YOU A SENSE OFSATISFACTION THATMONEY CAN’T BUY.—KEN ONG, ARCHER
Ken Ong has always liked objects synonymous with speed.
Before he returned to Singaporefour years ago, the director of a construction business spent 12 years inTaiwan working in the exhibition indus-try. When not setting up exhibition spaces, the 42-year-old would head to the circuits to participate in touring carraces, which involve heavily modified street cars.
In a mix of English and Mandarin,Ken said: “It was just for fun. I’d borrow my friends’ cars — my favourite was the Subaru WRX.”
It was natural, therefore, for him to take up archery. Few things, after all,can be said to move more swiftly than an arrow.
The national archer, who will compete in the upcoming SEA Games in the compound men’s category, first chanced upon the sport while seeking a diversion from work.
He recalled: “I was working on a building near an archery range, and I just walked in for fun.”
Soon, he was going to the range every day, shooting 300 arrows each time.
Said Ken: “Archery’s very addictive.I like the feeling of the arrow flying from my bow. It’s the speed and that satisfying ‘thk’ sound the arrow makes when it hits the target. It gives you a sense of satisfaction that money can’t buy.”
With the SEA Games looming near,Ken heads to the Zhenghua archery range daily to get in some practice, in addition to making his rounds at a multitude of construction sites seven days a week.
Although Ken has taken part in a few other regional competitions, the SEA Games will be his biggest challenge to date. What may come as a surprise —and will come in very handy at the Games —is his unflappable calm, a trait partly honed by archery.
“When we shoot, we focus all our concentration on the bullseye,” said Ken. “You can’t start thinking: ‘Hmm, I haven’t paid my water bills.’”
Asked whether he thinks he will return with a medal in December, Ken mused: “Every athlete hopes to win —if not, one might as well just stay in bed!But there are always ups and downs in athletics, so one can never be sure. I just hope to perform to the standard I’m capable of.”
In addition, Ken is setting his sights on the 45th Outdoor Archery World Championships, which will take place in Korea in 2009. He may have come to the sport late, but he plans to “keep shooting until I can’t lift the bow”.
Like “a true-blue Gemini”, however,the speed aficionado gives a most unlikely reply when asked what he would be doing now if he had not stepped onto an archery range four years ago.
With a laugh, Ken replied: “I’d probably be doing taiji!”
THE WIND’S IN HIS SAILS
WE TRAIN ALMOST EVERY DAY, EVEN IF THERE’S A STORM. WE SAIL AS LONG AS THERE’S NO LIGHTNING.— XU YUAN ZHEN, SAILOR
I whined about having to take a cab to the Singapore Sailing Club at East Coast Park on a drizzly morning to interview Xu Yuan Zhen — until the 22-year-old national sailor revealed casually: “Oh, we train almost everyday, even if there’s a storm. We sail as long as there’s no lightning.”
Every week, Yuan Zhen and his team-mates undergo six four-hour sailing sessions, four gym sessions lasting two hours each, as well as four core training sessions that last “one hour, if we can stand it”.
This regimen may sound punishing—unless, of course, your goal is to procure some Olympic metal in 2008 and 2012. As a beneficiary of the Singapore National Olympic Council funding programme Project 0812, Yuan Zhen sails full-time, together with teammates like Terence Koh, his sailing partner in the men’s 470 class.
The highlight of their partnership so far has been bagging a silver at last year’s Asian Games.
While they have been good friends since young, Yuan Zhen said with a laugh: “There will always be times when we disagree. For example, he may think the left side of a course is better while I think the right side is better. So, now we have a way of settling things: Whenthere’s an upwind, it’s up to him to decide. When it’s a downwind, it’s up to me!”
Learning to work as a team and to make decisions on the spot while the winds and waves are tossing you about are a few of the best things about sailing, according to Yuan Zhen, who first started sailing in the Optimist class when he was 10.
However, all that time spent on the water has its downside. Said the former Temasek Polytechnic student: “I don’t get to see many of my friends from school or from NS. Usually, I just talk to them online.”
That rare spot of free time he has is either spent with his girlfriend — fellow national sailor Toh Liying — or on his various interests, which include the computer game Warcraft III, football and karaoke. Yuan Zhen claims he does a mean rendition of Rick Price’s Heaven Knows.
More recently, he and his team-mates have also been doing a different sort of strategising. Yuan Zhen said:“We’ll round up eight people and have a mahjong party at (fellow sailor) Wee Chin’s place! But we’re all not very‘pro’.”
While Yuan Zhen is currently honing his skills in what he is best at — sailing — he has another goal he hopes to realise after the 2012 Olympics.
Said Yuan Zhen: “I’d like to go to a local university and study finance. If I keep deferring my studies, I’ll be the oldest undergraduate around!”
