Cheong Jun Hoong

Early and personal life

Cheong was born in Batu Gajah, Perak. She is the daughter of Cheong Sun Meng and Leow Lai Kun. She has two siblings, Cheong Jun Nie and Cheong Jun Yeng. Her fascination in aquatics began at tender age of four. At age nine, she started her training in diving with Perak's state coach, Zhou Xiyang. In 2004, she was offered a place at the Bukit Jalil Sports School. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Communications from Universiti Putra Malaysia.

Career

Cheong represented Malaysia at the 2014 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 and 4th in the 10 m synchro event with partner Leong Mun Yee, narrowly losing the bronze medal to fellow athletes Pandelela Rinong and Nur Dhabitah Sabri.

In August 2016, she participated at the Rio Summer Olympics in the Women's 3 Metre Platform, with Pandelela Rinong in the Women's Synchronized 10 Metre Platform, and partnered with Nur Dhabitah Sabri in the 3 m synchro event. She managed to get a silver medal in the 10 m event, 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 the 2016 FINA Diving Grand Prix in Kuching, Sarawak.

In June 2017, Cheong returned from a back injury to win the bronze medal in the Women's 1 Metre Springboard event at the 7th Asian Diving Cup in Macau after withdrewing from the Kazan and Windsor legs of the 2017 FINA Diving World Series earlier. Cheong became Malaysia's first diving World Champion, when she took home the gold medal in the Women's 10 Metre Platform event in the 2017 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, pipping her closest rival by just 1.5 points. 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. She also won a bronze in the Women's Synchronized 10 Metre Platform event with Pandelela Rinong with a total score of 328.74.

Jun Hoong also the flag-bearers for Malaysia at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games alongside two reigning world champions cyclist Azizulhasni Awang and silat exponent Mohd Al-Jufferi Jamari.