Jun Hoong's nine-year 'dive' into tertiary studies comes to sweet end

SERDANG, Nov 16  --  Years of struggle juggling her time between training and her tertiary studies came to sweet end for national diving queen, Cheong Jun Hoong, when she received her Bachelor of Communication degree from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Chancellor, Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah at the university's 43rd convocation ceremony today.

Recalling her life as an undergraduate, the 29-year-old Jun Hoong was grateful to UPM for allowing her to graduate even it had taken longer than the usual three years.

"I started my studies in 2009 but postponed my studies several times because I wanted to focus on my training and represent the country in competitions. 

"But it came to a point where I began asking myself how much longer can I postpone my studies. So, I continued despite having to cut down on credit hours due to training," she said when speaking to the media here today.

Jung Hoong noted that her biggest obstacle in the journey towards her degree was time constraints and exhaustion as she had to divide her attention between diving and studies. 

On her future plans, the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist noted that she was looking into coaching as an option. 

Besides Jun Hoong, two other national athletes also received their respective degree at the convocation ceremony, namely national women's shot putter Bibi Nuraisyah Ishak  (Bachelor of Education - Physical Education) and national shooting athlete, Johnathan Wong Guangjie (Bachelor of Engineering - Aerospace).

-- BERNAMA