Calvin Kang Li Loong

Calvin Kang (Kang Li Loong, Chinese: 江利龙; pinyin: Jiāng Lì Lóng; born 16 April 1990) is a track and field sprint athlete who competes internationally for Singapore.[1] He specialises in the 100m sprint, but also runs the 200m and 4 × 100 m events.

Calvin Kang
Kang in 2013
Personal information
Full nameKang Li Loong
National teamSingapore
Born (1990-04-16) 16 April 1990
Singapore
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight64 kg (141 lb)
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  Singapore
Southeast Asian Games
Silver medal – second place2011 Jakarta4 × 100 m relay
Silver medal – second place2015 Singapore4 × 100m relay
In this Chinese name, the family name is Kang.

Personal life

Kang attended Victoria School and Singapore Sports School.[2] Upon graduation from Singapore Sports School, Kang entered Nanyang Technological University to pursue his undergraduate degree in sport science and management in 2011 before deciding to defer his studies to train professionally in 2013.[3]

Career

He represented Singapore at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing in the 100m sprint and placed 6th in his heat without advancing to the second round. He ran a time of 10.73 seconds, 0.2 seconds outside his national junior record time of 10.53 seconds.[1] Kang has represented Singapore at four major competitions – Southeast Asian Games (Nakhon Ratchasima, 2007), Summer Olympic Games (Beijing, 2008), Commonwealth Games (Delhi, 2010) and Asian Games (Guangzhou, 2010), making him the only Singaporean athlete to do so before the age of 20.[4]

In the 2011 Southeast Asian Games held in Indonesia, Kang ran in the 4 × 100 m relay with his teammates and achieved the silver medal with a timing of 39.91 seconds.[5]

In August 2013, Kang was the sole representative of Singapore in the IAAF World Championships 2013 held in Moscow. Clocking a time of 10.52 seconds in the men's 100m event, Kang finished first in heat 4 of the preliminaries and equalled his personal best.[6] He later ran a time of 10.66 seconds in his heat.[7]

In the 2015 Southeast Asian Games held in Singapore, Kang and his team, consisting of Muhammad Amirudin, Lee Cheng Wei and Gary Yeo, set a new national record of 39.24 seconds for the 4 × 100 m relay, beating the previous record of 39.45 seconds.[8][9] The timing earned them a silver medal, narrowly losing the gold medal to the Thai team. Kang also ran a personal best 100m timing of 10.47 seconds, but missed out on a podium placing as he came in 4th.[10]

Kang has had the backing of several notable sponsors such as MILO (under Nestle Singapore) from 2008 to 2014 and 100PLUS in 2015 to present. He has been featured prominently in their campaigns, and was affectionately known as the "MILO boy"[11] for the duration of his MILO sponsorship.

Besides excelling at athletics, Kang has ventured into several entrepreneurship undertakings, such as the director of community partnerships[12] in Shiok SG, a local social enterprise, and the lead trainer[13] at The Impressionist, an agency that specialises in imparting interview skills.

References
  1. Athlete biography: Calvin Kang, beijing2008.cn, ret: Aug 26, 2008
  2. "Next sprint king in the making" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-10-11. Retrieved 2009-06-13.
  3. "Calvin Kang puts NTU education on hold to pursue athletics full time". redsports.sg. Archived from the original on 2018-09-23. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
  4. "2012 Singapore National Games". Archived from the original on 2013-07-30. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
  5. "SEA Games Athletics: Singapore exceed six-medal target with 2 golds, 3 silvers and 2 bronzes". redsports.sg. Archived from the original on 2012-08-19. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
  6. "Kang equals personal best, advances to 100m heats at IAAF World Championships". todayonline.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
  7. "Sprinter Kang fails to advance at world championships". todayonline.com. Archived from the original on 2013-08-15. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
  8. "SEA Games athletics: Singapore surge to men's 4x100m silver in new national record". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  9. "SEA Games Athletics (4x100m relay): Two national records fall; men settle for silver". RED SPORTS. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  10. "SEA Games 100m (Men): Calvin Kang sets new personal best but misses medal by 0.02s". RED SPORTS. Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  11. ""Training develops discipline, it hones your character and it indeed shapes your destiny" – sprinter Calvin Kang". RED SPORTS. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  12. "The Shiok Collective | Shiok!". Shiok!. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  13. "Our Team". Impressionist. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
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