However, Kenneth Kaden Chin Yu Wai is struggling to make Malaysia proud on a world stage in a similar but unfortunately lesser-known sport, powerlifting. Powerlifting is a sport with three lift attempts: back squat, bench press, and deadlifts where competitive powerlifters work towards increasing the maximum weight they lift for each attempt.
Kenneth, 32, set a record for being the first and only Malaysian silver medallist competing at the recent IPF Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships 2022 along with over 300 athletes from a total of 13 countries. He won four silver medals in the U- 59kg Open Weight Category division for Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, and Overall Placing at the competition held in Auckland, New Zealand.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of official funding allocations, Kenneth had to fork out most of the funds to participate out of his own pocket. It costs over RM10,000 to participate in the recent Commonwealth Championships, including travel flights, official hotel accommodations, food, event fees, antidoping fees, and other miscellaneous fees –– 90% of which was paid by Kenneth himself, with the remainder coming entirely from sponsors.
Kenneth shared that this is a struggle not only faced by him personally, but by other powerlifters as well, “Athletes in this sport often have to pay for their own equipment, gym memberships, competition fees, and travel funds. Depending on the location of each championship, it could cost close to five figures. Without government recognition, our sport in this country will not grow because many new talents will be unable to participate due to financial constraints.” There are currently five members in his team.
We reported similarly about Soh Wai Ching who is a tower runner that runs up towers all over the globe and consistently places at number 1. We first reported about him in 2020 and 2 years on he is still not supported by the government and has to rely on donations for flight tickets and entrance fees as well as the kindness of strangers for lodging.
Kenneth elaborated that a lack of attention from the government is “Due to the fact that powerlifting isn't included in the Olympics due to several factors, it receives less interest compared to weightlifting, especially in the Southeast Asian region. The lack of participation by the sport in the multisport games may be one of the top reasons that our government have not been convinced to provide further financial support to our athletes.”
While some may have the luxury of being full-time athletes, Kenneth juggles being a sportsperson and his day job as a Digital Marketer. He got involved in the sport late in the game and only started training professionally four years ago when he was 28.
He said, "I first started to fall in love with this sport when I stumbled upon an unsanctioned local competition and was amazed by how supportive and generous the powerlifting community was. I decided to try it out just for fun in the beginning, but I came to realise that I have the potential to succeed in powerlifting. From then on, I won numerous competitions in Malaysia, where I have been consecutively crowned a multi-time national champion.”
Kenneth maintains a strict schedule and diet that typically includes 4 days of training a week, depending on his coach-guided programming.
He elaborated, “I train for about 3 hours per day, usually in the evening after a full day’s work. Powerlifting athletes who train in a more intense environment take longer to complete their workouts than average gymgoers. We focus primarily on sport-specific movements and variations using extremely heavy weights—over or up to 200 kg depending on the lift.”
He also shared about his diet, which surprisingly doesn’t involve excluding rice from his meals but on high protein and carb-rich foods which are optimised for strength performance: “In terms of nutrition, there's often a misconception that we must eat more protein and fewer carbs.
The latter isn't correct, as powerlifting relies heavily on our body's main energy system to exert maximum force; carbs are our best friend in this case. On the most intense training days, sometimes I need as much as 300g of carbs which is equivalent to six cups of rice per day for fuel and optimising recovery.”
All the hard work has paid off with Kenneth winning medals left and right including the recent IPF Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships 2022, marking his first victory in an international competition where he obtained a podium finish while securing three individual lift events, resulting in a total of four silver medals. He also made a mark internationally with a silver medal at the Southeast Asia Championships.
He is far from being content with his current achievements and shared that “My future goal is to compete in the IPF World Championships and hopefully one day be able to secure a medal in at least a single lift event.” The championships are regarded as the top championships in the sport and air on Astro Eurosport annually.
Kenneth is currently training for the National Championships, which is the country's biggest powerlifting event, where the national federation will nominate qualified athletes to represent the country at upcoming international meets and which will be held in May 2023.
He said, “We have a strong team of athletes of international calibre who are waiting to be given the opportunity to shine. So, our biggest hope now is for our newly appointed Minister of Youth & Sports YB Hannah Yeoh to give us the help we need. This would be a form of acknowledgement to our success as bearers of the nation’s flag that compete and win on world stages.”
Let’s hope that deserving athletes get the necessary support to propel Malaysia to greater heights!
Follow Kenneth on Instagram.
Image credit: Nickster, @syedamiruuul