“That result took a huge weight off my shoulders,” Ng said. “However well I perform and feel in training, if it is followed by an average race, you begin to doubt yourself, and think the good feeling in training only amounts to coming in the top-10 in an Asian championships.
“Now, there is no feeling of ‘what if?’ I have no worries and know I can do it. I can show up knowing I achieved a podium in an elite Asian competition. I can go hard from the gun and stay with these guys.”
Ng is among the triathletes flourishing under the stewardship of head coach Andrew Wright. Teammate Robin Elg, the Asian Under-23 champion, won bronze in the season-ending event in Xiamen.
Olympian Oscar Coggins is poised to return from a lay-off early next year, and on the female side Bailee Brown is eyeing Paris after the best year of her career.
“Having teammates performing at a high level creates competition, and pushes the sport in Hong Kong to improve,” Ng said. “We bounce off each other. If an individual gets on the podium, we see it as a team success.
“I do not have as much interaction with Andrew as some of the athletes who like to talk about every session, and how they feel outside training.
“I am more chilled out. I can get along with most people, but I do not talk much in training, I just do what I am there to do.”
Ng said he “found the motivation to keep chugging” when Covid-19 wiped-out the racing calendar. Positive results after competition resumed in 2022 included fourth at the regional championships, before he “went up a step” this year.
“Next year, I want to take another step up,” Ng said. “I have tight battles with [Beisenbayev], we are very similar, but I want to qualify for the Olympics for Hong Kong and give the home fans a show.”
A flat bike tire ended Ng’s final race of the year in Xiamen last month.
“By the time I had to pull out, I just thought, ‘let me lie down’,” Ng said. “It was a long season and, mentally, I was glad we were done. But I cannot wait for next year.”
Ng juggles competing and training for roughly 30 hours per week, with an engineering degree at the University of Science and Technology. His two worlds collided when Xin Zhang, a professor of aerospace engineering at the university, conducted wind tunnel and aerodynamics projects.
“I rode in the wind tunnel, then would sit with the PhD students, to assess the results: how they would affect cyclists, and what would make us faster,” Ng said. “We have looked at drag reduction, and tested different equipment.”
Ng, then, has no time for second-guessing how chief adversary Beisenbayev is faring.
“I have no control over what he does, so thinking about it would be an unhealthy way to spend my time,” Ng said. “I would be stressing out when I could be recovering or studying. You get your best results when you focus on yourself.”
