Injured Wong finds tough to reign at 4th Asian BMX Championships

Hong Kong's King of BMX (bicyclemoto cross) Wong Steven looked it tougher than ever to win his fourth consecutive title at the 4th Asian BMX Championships to open here on Saturday.

Wong, reigning champion of China's National Games, tumbled and thus was injured in the men's elite event of BMX competitions two weeks ago at China's 11th National Games.

"At the moment, my ankle is still injured," Wong told Xinhua after the press conference for the Asian Championships here on Friday. "I can walk normally but still have no strength, so it would be pretty interesting this weekend to see if I can ride or not.

"I've been back training, but I only did things that I could do, like some gym or some strength. For riding on the BMX, I just tried like two days ago."

However, as the all-time men's champion of the Asian Championships held annually from 2006, Wong would never give up the title.

"When you are training, you would always think about the injury, and you would think I can't push it too hard, because if the injury gets worse, I would be out longer. But the race tomorrow is one of my goals, so I will be pushing like a hundred percent. Even if it hurts, I'll try to go faster anyway. " Wong said.

"Honestly speaking, at the moment, I don't have any expectations anymore, but I still want to achieve my goal," he added.

The 21-year-old cyclist, born in Belgium with his mother Belgian and his father Hong Konger, is one of Hong Kong's sports stars.

Except for the injury, he will also face great challenges from competitors as Japan's Akifumi Sakamoto, the only BMX cyclist from Asia at the Beijing Olympics 2008, and Tony Syarifudin from Indonesia, the runner-up of Asian Championships last year.

China's Zhao Zhiyang, the silver medalist of the National Gamesand Hong Kong's newcomer Hunter Alex are also looking forward to making a surprise victory.

For the women's event, China's Olympic competitor Ma Liyun will race for the title against her compatriot Jiang Nannan, newly crowned in the National Games.

The 4th Asian BMX Championships, which featured athletes from eight member associations of the Asian Cycling Confederation, was followed by HSBC 2009 BMX Open at the same venue of the newly built Hong Kong Jockey Club International BMX Park on Sunday.

Source: Xinhua