Cheong Jun Hoong (Chinese:張俊虹;pinyin:Zhāng Jùnhóng)AMN (born 16 April 1990) is a retired Malaysiandiver.[3] She won a silver medal in thesynchronised 10m platform event withPandelela Rinong at the2016 Summer Olympics. At the2017 World Aquatics Championships, she became Malaysia's first diving world champion after winning the10m platform event.[4]
Cheong Jun Hoong was born inIpoh,Perak. She is the daughter of Cheong Sun Meng and Leow Lai Kuan.[5] She has a younger sister. Her fascination inaquatics began at the age of four. At age nine, she started her training indiving withPerak's state coach,Zhou Xiyang. In 2004, she was offered a place at theBukit Jalil Sports School. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Communications fromUniversiti Putra Malaysia.
Cheong won a bronze medal in1m springboard at the2010 Asian Games. She made her Olympic debut at the2012 London Olympics where she finished 20th in3m springboard and eighth in3m synchronized springboard withPandelela Rinong.
Cheong representedMalaysia at the2014 Commonwealth Games, where she competed in the 1 m, 3 m, and 10 m events.She placed 8th in the 1 m event,12th in the 3 m event,5th in the 3 m synchronised event,6th in the 10 m event and4th in the 10 m synchro event with partnerLeong Mun Yee, narrowly losing the bronze medal to fellow athletesPandelela Rinong andNur Dhabitah Sabri. At the2014 Asian Games inIncheon, she won a silver medal in3m synchro springboard withNg Yan Yee. She also won a bronze medal inindividual 3m event.
In August 2016, she participated at theRio Summer Olympics in the3m platform,10m synchronized platform withPandelela Rinong and3m synchronized springboard withNur Dhabitah Sabri. She won her first Olympic medal, a silver in the 10m synchronized platform with a final score of 344.34. However, she did not qualify for the final of the 3m event. She placed 5th in the 3m synchro event. Due to her persisting back pain, in October 2016 she withdrew from the2016 FIN[6] A Diving Grand Prix inKuching,Sarawak.[7]
In June 2017, Cheong returned from a back injury to win the bronze medal in the 1m springboard event at the 7th Asian Diving Cup inMacau after withdrawing from theKazan andWindsor legs of the2017 FINA Diving World Series earlier.[8] Cheong became Malaysia's first diving World Champion, when she took home the gold medal in the10m platform event in the2017 World Aquatics Championships inBudapest, pipping her closest rival by just 1.5 points.[9] Four of the seven judges gave a perfect 10 on her best dive in the competition, and she finished with an overall score of 397.5.[4] She also won a bronze in the10m synchronized 10 platform event withPandelela Rinong with a total score of 328.74.
Cheong was chosen as one of the flag-bearers for Malaysia at the2017 Southeast Asian Games alongside two reigning world champions cyclistAzizulhasni Awang and silat exponent Mohd Al-Jufferi Jamari.
On 4 January 2022, Cheong announced her retirement after her contract as a full-time athlete with the National Sports Council and Malaysia Swimming was not renewed.[2] One of the reasons Cheong provided for her retirement was a second knee injury she acquired in 2018 and had not been able to re-achieve a certain level of performance since then.[10]
Malaysia_-_SMN.svg)
Member of theOrder of the Defender of the Realm (AMN) (2017)[13][14]
|
