Lee Kum Cheok first started shooting in 1974 when he was an officer with the Singapore Armed Forces. What had initially started out as a hobby developed into a passion as Lee strived to excel at his sport and slowly began to establish himself as one of the Republic's top shooters in the trap and skeet categories "because of the challenge they posed". As he put it, "The targets are clay pigeons that travel at a speed of 50-60 miles per hour. It gave me a tremendous thrill whenever I 'killed' the bird" stated Lee of his interest in shooting. In 1974, his baptism year into the national shooting team, Lee won a silver medal at the Pesta Sukan Championships. A year later, at the 8th SEAP Games in Bangkok, he struck gold in the trap team event and a bronze in the skeet event. Lee himself attributes the triumph in Bangkok as "the turning point in my shooting career... It encouraged me to greater heights. It made me approach the sport at a different angle". Between 1977 and 1981, Lee consistently turned-up for the Singapore trap and skeet team at various competitions throughout Asia and South-East Asia. In 1980 Lee made his mark as Singapore's top shooting marksman when he clinched a silver medal at the Thailand International Shooting Championships, a competition that involved strong opposition in the form of the fancied Japanese and Australians. His sterling performances culminated in the Republic's trap team taking the gold medal at the 1981 SEA Games in Manila while Lee himself 'shared' the gold medal in the Individual trap event - and he did that in fine style too, setting a record of 182 points for the Individual trap. The team gold and his record-breaking individual gold at the trap events in Manila were good enough for Lee to clinch the Sportsman of the Year award 1981.