,Question: In the past, Cheong'Jun Hoong was known for being,inconsistent in competitions.How did you turn her into a 'world champion?Answer: It is not easy for a newdiving nation to .produce a world,champion. 'the standard in theworld meet is very high and onemust perform near-perfectly tofinish on the podium.There is a big story behind Jun

Hoong's success. In the past, shehad issues performing well incompetitions. Jun Hoong has ahistory of injuries. She could nottrain much due to injuries to herwrist, heel, shoulder and knee,and thus she could not work onstrengthening her technique.She used to make mistakes inindividual events during compe-titions.However, she was always more

/ confident in the 3m springboardand 10m' platform synchroevents.In the build-up to the World Q: How many world champl-

Championships, she initially /ons have you produced sincespent countless hours practising becoming a coach? ~ ,for the springboard before she _ A: In all, Ihave produced sevenpicked up a back injury. world champions but Jun Hoong-So, we had to forget about the . is my first outside China. When Ispringboard. She then focused was coaching in, China, I pro-'Onthe platform. Jun Hoong did a duced six world champions withlot of harness training in the dry' Chen Lixia being my first at thegym to tighten her routines and 1994 world meet in Rome.technique.' However, Jun Hoong's successFrankly, I did not set a target, ,is very special to me as I have

for any of the divers in the World finally achieved my goal to pro-

Championships. I just wantedthem toperform what they prac-tise in training. Like I said, I amgrooming them, for the 2020Olympics.

Q: What did Jun Hoong say toyou when she was declaredthe world champion?A: Jun Hoong came running andgave me a big hug. She was closeto tears and I almost broke downas I was just as surprised as her.To me, it was a sign of progressfor Malaysian diving. I knew thatone day I wi ll produce 11Malaysian world champion.I am so happy for Jun Hoong as

she is very hardworking in train-ing. She has matured into a gooddiver and I believe she will attainmore success in the upcomingyears;But my mission here is not over

yet. I' now want to produce anOlympic champion.

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duce a world champion outsideChina. Jun Hoong's win is hugeas many regard China as un-touchable in women's diving. ,, Diving is not an easy sport. Adiver must, start from young tomaster 'all the basic skills. It takecountless hours in the pool and,drygym to improve. I have seenmany divers just waste away asthey could not handle the pres-sure that came together withtraining.

Q: Do we need more coachesin the national set-up?A: We have four coaches inMalaysia. Zhang Yukun and I arecoaches under the Podium Pro-gramme while Huang Qiang andLi Ten come under the 'KitaJuara' Sea Games programme.We handle a total of 15 divers.Obviously, we rieed more

coaches. Preferably, we need spe-cialised coaches for each event. Itwill help Malaysia in the long runin producing a bigger pool ofchampion divers

ways need to go to China to trainas facilities there are complete.This has to change as Jun

Hoong's win will definitely en-courage more youngsters to takeup the, sport. There are manyyoungstersin Malaysia with po-tential but unfortunately, they donot train enough. We need betterfacilities to keep producing qual-ity divers.The newly renovated diving

venue in Bukit Jalil is a goodstart, but we also need adequatefacilities in other states. Like I

said, a diver needs to startyoung and to encour-

age them, weneed moretraining fa-cilities.

Q: Is Jun Hoong's win a sign ofChina's decline in the plat-form event? Q: Are there enough~divingA: No. They are still the strongest facilities in Malaysia?nation in women's diving.Jun A: Nope. In Malaysia,Hoong must work even harder there are no proper 'now as China will be, back for harness training fa-revenge, in the next competition. ,cilities. Conducting, A new form of pressure will now' trainingin Malaysiahound JUI1Hoong .Everyone will is tough as' some-be watching her as sheis a world .times these facili-champion. . '_ ties are used forShe 'needs to overcome the, other things. As a

pressures that will come from result, we often need_being the best in the world. It is to change our train-not easy but 'I will do my best to ing programme.help her face these pressures and And because ofcontinue to perform consistent- this, we al-ly.As for China, they have at least

10 divers of equal quality in eachevent. We may see China enteringa different set of divers' for thenext priority event after this fail-'ure, I

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