The words inimitable and dedicated holds true when weighlifting's Chua Koon Siong's name is mentioned - his steadfast resolve and determination had won for him the Sportsman of the Year award thrice, in 1977, 1979 and 1980.

It was a chance encounter at the gymnasium with middle-heavyweight champion Woo Kim Sang that stirred the interest of Chua into the discipline of weightlifting. Woo offered to train the teenager after which Chua's rapid progress bespoke of a natural affinity for the sport.

Chua was so enamoured by the sport that he left school at 19 to concentrate full-time on his weightlifting training, much to the chagrin of his parents. As Chua himself recalled:-

''My father was raving mad. I remember my mother asking how weightlifting could possibly feed me. There was so much tension and unhappiness, but I suppose all that pushed me to work even harder to achieve results.''

Chua subjected himself to punishing training regimens in his desire to 'bring glory' to Singapore. He trained so hard that one day he accidentally slammed the metal bar into his throat - an incident that has caused his voice to be hoarse ever since.

Nevertheless, it took only 18 months for Chua to blaze his trail into the world weightlifting arena, breaking many records and winning many medals and titles...

At his first international outing, the 4th SEAP Games in Bangkok (1967), he lifted his way to a bronze medal. In the 1970 and 1974 Commonwealth Games, he was placed fifth and fourth respectively while at the Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada (1976), Chua managed a ninth-place finish in a field of seventeen competitors.

He fared far better at the regional level - at the 1975 SEAP Games and the 1977 and 1979 SEA Games, Chua achieved successive gold medal wins.

It was his gold medal wins at the '77 and '79 SEA Games that won for him the Sportsman of the Year awards for those years while his 1980 award was a result of his performance at the 1980 6th ASEAN Weightlifting Championship where he earned himself 3 gold medals, twice bettering the Commonwealth Games featherweight record in the process.

Chua Koon Siong's greatest weighlifting triumph, however, took place at the 1981 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships. He fainted after his first lift and grazed his brow and lip during upon falling; returning after some delay, still bloodied on his brow and upper-lip, he managed his final lift of 137.5 kg, an effort that won for him the gold medal.

Retiring from competitive weightlifting in the mid-1980's, Chua turned to coaching and went on to become the national weightlifting coach for the 1993 SEA Games weightlifting squad. He is a father of three children who today leads a simple and contented lifestyle.