"Army Officer
Repeats as Fitness Champion"
(The Honolulu Advertiser, June 14, 1998)
Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the
best athlete in the world, perhaps the best of all time, but if Sir Michael were to be
matched up with Sonki Hong in a multi-discipline physical fitness contest the smart money
would be on Hong.
Hong, the reigning world champion in the STREND Fitness Challenge, easily
defended his title in the Kapiolani Health STREND Fitness Challenge, part of the Aloha
State Games, yesterday morning at the Tripler Army Hospital softball field and track. The
event consists of six disciplines designed to test STRength and ENDurance.
"I don't think there's anyone who can touch Sonki," said Ed
Bugarin, founder of the event, which has become popular in Europe, especially in Germany.
In scoring a STREND factor of 6.9859, well ahead of the 4.1701 of
runner-up Joshua Wiggins, Hong, a 28-year-old Army intelligence officer, did the
following:
Bench pressed 152.5 pounds (115 percent of his body
weight) 29 times;
Chinned (palms out, wide grip) himself 21 times with
an extra 20 pound (15 percent of body weight) tied around his waist;
Shoulder pressed (behind neck) 80 pounds (60 percent
of his body weight) 28 times;
Chinned (palms in, close grip) himself 15 times while
anchored down with an extra 20 pounds;
Performed 31 parallel bar dips with 33.5 pounds (25
percent of body weight) around his waist;
Ran three miles in 17 minutes, 45 seconds.
"I'll be getting out of the Army in two weeks and I guess I've been partying too
much," Hong said. He fell short of his world record score of 7.235 set last year.
Hong's weight is up to 134 pounds, six more than last year, and he said that may have been
a factor.
There were 34 men and six women in the competition. Kay
Clifton, a 32-year-old aerobics and yoga instructor, edged Jennifer Thompson-Tuzon in the
women's competition, 2.5050 to 2.4380. Clifton bench pressed 60 pounds 22 times, chinned
herself three times, did 20 repetitions with 30 pounds in the shoulder press, performed
nine reverse chins, and nine dips. She finished with 25:09 in the run. The women do not
have extra weights strapped to them.
The competitors went from one discipline to the next every
three minutes, meaning they got only about two minutes rest between each activity (after
exerting themselves for about a minute).
Hong said he devotes around eight hours a week to fitness
activities. "I go for quality more than quantity," said Hong, a former all-state
prep wrestler from Indiana who ranked first physically in his West Point graduating class.
"I try to be efficient in everything I do."
Hong plans to compete in the European Open STREND Challenge
next month before beginning a job with a management consultant firm in San Francisco. He
hopes he'll be able to return to Honolulu in October to defend his world championship.
Unlike Hong, who can't remember not being fit, Clifton, who
now carries 104 pounds on a 5-foot-1 frame, scaled 152 pounds just four years ago.
"I got out of the shower one day, I looked at myself
in the mirror, and said I'm too young to be like this," Clifton said. She said she
averages 22 hours a week in fitness activities. |
Sonki Fitness