Taiwanese swimmer Cho Cheng-chi on Friday won gold in the men’s 10km race at the Asian Open Water Swimming Championship in Hong Kong.
In a tight race, Cho finished in a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes, 40.2 seconds, just 0.1 seconds faster than the silver medalist, Thailand’s Ratthawit Thammananthachote.
Cho was crowned Asian champion for the first time in the event, having clinched silver on three previous occasions.
Photo courtesy of Cho Cheng-chi’s coach Liu Yao-chang
Cho told reporters that his mental condition had been unsatisfactory since the Asian Games concluded in October last year. After missing the opportunity to compete at the Paris Olympics and considering his age, he thought about retiring from the sport.
However, his coach Liu Yao-chang communicated with him and they agreed that he should take a long break instead of retiring, Cho said.
After returning to training in June, he signed up for the Kinmen Long-Distance Open Water Swim in July.
However, with his mental state unimproved, Cho said he again contemplated stepping back from swimming to focus on his master’s degree.
Liu urged him “to not quit so early,” which convinced him to compete in the Asian Championships and return to training in September, he said.
Cho said he only had a little over a month of intense training and Liu did not dare to drill him too hard, so he was only at about 70 to 80 percent of his peak ability in Hong Kong.
Despite that, Cho said he felt his training was solid, adding that he was happy to finally win gold.
“A gold medal depends a lot on the state and luck during the race,” he said. “Now that I’m in the final stage of my [professional swimming] career, this [medal] means a lot to me.”
Cho said he was most grateful to Liu.
“It’s the coach who kept discussing things with me. You could say that this medal was obtained with his incessant training,” he said. “I only resumed training a month ago, but he still thought I had a chance and that helped me to achieve this milestone.”
Taiwan’s Teng Yu-wen won bronze in the women’s 10km event with a time of 2 hours, 17 minutes, 23.8 seconds.
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