My Sports

Swimming

From young, I was never the best in swimming. In fact, I use to be one of the worse competitors who would always come last. During my first ever swimming competition, when I was around 10, I was sat waiting outside for half a day for a 30 second race while the better ones were out competing. I lost all motivation after that day but good friends and family encouraged me to continue, hence, I did training outside school, training around 40 hours per week. As I progressed, I see my rankings get closer to 1 every competition I did.

I eventually got selected to represent Brunei in the ASEAN School Games where I competed in the 50m, 100m, 200m breastroke and 200m freestyle and 800m freestyle relay. As I trained further, I got selected to respresent Brunei in multiple international competitions. In 2018, I left to the UK to train under one of the best swimming clubs in the world, Plymouth Leander. I stopped swimming competitively in 2020, where I chose to focus on my professional life.

The most important thing I've taken away from my years of swimming is discipline and organisation is the key to success. I was fortunate to have friends and family supporting me, but also had the correct mindset when things got tough.

Relevent articles: https://www.brusports.com/2017/11/09/brunei-ready-to-swim-against-regions-best/

Cycling

I still remember when I was watching the Tour de France in 2017, it still amazes me how these athletes can race for hours daily with minimal rest. I got my first road bike in 2017, and was fortunate to be part of a team in Brunei that taught me from 0. I use to ride with them 3-4 times a week whilst balancing my swimming training and school work.

In 2018, I attended my first ever cycling race which consists of a circuit of 40km. Through dedication, hardwork and supportive team members, I placed 2nd in the under 25 category. A few months past and I competed in my longest competition yet, 110km - Which I placed 6th in the open category. For the rest of the time, I participated in various cycling competitions within Brunei. My first international cycling competition was held in Miri, Malaysia - where it was my longest competition of 120km (3 hours), which I placed 6th in the under 25 category.

During my cycling time, I learnt the importance of self care and nutrition to support the demands of my body, as well as teamworking skills.

Triathlon

During my time with competitive cycling and swimming, I eventually got into triathlon. Training all 3 sports in a week kept me motivated through having variety in my training. I did not really have a coach or a training program, hence everything in triathlon was self trained / taught.

With me being super competitive, I decided to join my first triathlon competition (Panaga Triathlon) in Brunei where I placed first place in the sprint distance in the open category. This gave me more motivation as I felt a potential for myself to be better. As I trained and competed further, I signed up to the largest triathlon competition in Brunei in the open age group for the olympic distance. I placed 3rd place for this and made the decision to challenge myself further.

In 2020, when COVID-19 was at it's peak, I challenged myself to do an indoor half-ironman, where I completed it in around 6 hours. The biggest lesson I took from my experience is mindset is crucial in any challenge or goal I've set myself. I try to stay positive and try something new every day.

Coaching profile: https://u.ironman.com/profile-coach_profile/200291

Running

During the peak of COVID, I started a personal project improving my running as well as helping with COVID.

I challenged myself to run a half-marathon (21.1km) for 7-days straight. I managed to raise over $1000 through donations and support via organic marketing and donated it to the COVID fun relief.

Crossfit

Interestingly enough, I actually started wwith crossfit before any other sport. My dad brought me to a crossfit gym (Reebok Crossfit 673) based in Brunei, where I was taught my a CrossFit Games Athlete (Michael Mogard).

I trained casually 2 or 3 times a week, but never expected myself to compete in this sport. Until when I was 14, where my gym teammates convinced me to compete in the CrossFit open.

Going into this, I did not expect to place well as I was still focused on my swimming. However, I surprised myself and placed 1st place in Brunei and 2nd in South East Asia in the teenage 14-15 year old category. I did more CrossFit opens throughout the year to track where I stand internationally but never fully committed to the sport.

Until this day, I still do CrossFit and the aspect I appreciate the most, is the supportiveness that I get from my teammates and like-minded athletes.

Athlete profile: https://games.crossfit.com/athlete/490558