RHKYC at the World Rowing Championship

WORDS: EKATERINA LUKYANETS | IMAGES: WRC

n September, two of our Junior members, Lam, San Tung Peter, and Chiu, Hin Chun Jacky raced in the 2022 World Rowing Championship in Racice, the Czech Republic, representing the HKSAR and their results were impressive:

Lam and his partner Wong Wai Chun, Jack, ranked 17th (Final C) in open men’s pair – the highest achievement ever for Hong Kong in the men’s open race in World Championship.

Chiu and his partner Chan, Chi-fung ranked 26th in lightweight men’s double sculls. Chiu is the winner of the ATIR 2021 mixed double with Winky Hui in 3 hours 38 minutes.

We have invited them to share their journey leading up to the 2022 World Rowing Championship.

Lam, San Tung Peter

This was our first attempt as open weight rowers and we ended up 17th in the world. We don’t feel upset because it is an opportunity for us to know ourselves better.

Looking back to 2019, it was a year of disappointment and I thought it was the lowest of my eight-year rowing career: I missed my shot at the Olympic Qualifiers and our training plans and road map were massively affected by COVID-19. Everything caught up to me and I felt like nothing was under my control. I couldn’t help but think that my career as a rower was over. I felt there was nothing left to give. With a heavy heart, I reflected and asked myself “Is there another way out? What if I try something else?” I asked myself and evaluated all possible options. One of the most challenging options is to row in the open category, since there are fewer lightweight rowing seat available at the Olympics. Although I understood that high stakes come with high rewards, I couldn’t deny that the stakes were even higher for me to make that decision. It was also because no one has ever done this before in Hong Kong. I was determined to make a change. After months of discussion,

Chiu Hin Chun and partner

my partner (Wong Wai Chun, Jack) and I discussed with the coaches and agreed it was worth a try. With the coaches’ support, we began to train in the men’s pair. We trained almost every day, rain or shine. We also went through the altitude training programmes and overcame many challenges on my way to become an open weight rower.

Fast forward to September 2022, Jack and I arrived at the World Championships venue in Racice, Czech Republic. It was a whole new world and different playing field as it was our first time competing as an open weight rower. Before our heat race, we came across rowers from other countries and realised we are 20cm shorter in height. It was intimidating and a bit overwhelming, but we quickly adjusted our mindset and were determined to do our best despite the shortcoming. We decided to treat the championship as an opportunity to assess our progress and show people what we’ve got. We were very excited and crossed the finish line in third place at our first heat race. It was not only a pleasant surprise for us, but also a surprise for the commentators, as they didn’t even call out our boat during the entire race. I received tons of messages from the RHKYC rowing team before my race – I was very happy by the support. It was great motivation for us because knowing people give their support by watching the race on livestream. Our objective