Only five years ago, Allison Yee Phui Se started running casually to lose weight, and little did she expect to qualify for not one, but two Duathlon events at the upcoming Philippines SEA Games.

As she met more like-minded people, Allison started cycling leisurely too in her hometown of Kuantan, and fell in love with multisports at her first Powerman Duathlon experience as a relay runner in 2017. It’s no surprise she also found a significant other who is also an avid triathlete, whom inspires her to greater heights in the sport.

“I had always wanted to try cycling, so I went to a local bike shop and bought my first aluminium bike on clearance ( as I could only afford that) to joined friends for rides. I loved it, and wanted to train to be a better cyclist too,” said Allison.

In the Standard Distance selection race, Allison led for most of the race, and burnt every match left in her tank, to pull a big gap from her competitors – Mariana Mohamad and Aimi Iwasaki, to cross the finish line with happy tears.

“Totally unbelievable. This is my first time ever training full time professionally under Rupert Chen from RC Coaching. I often doubted myself at beating everyone on the field, as I have zero athletic background,” said an ecstatic Allison.

The 23 year-old will be representing Malaysia in the Super Sprint Distance (Run 2km – Bike 8km – Run 1km, mixed relay team) debuting in the SEA Games, besides the Standard Distance ( Run 10km – Bike 40km – Run 5km) for the Duathlon. In preparation for the games, Allison will be improving her cycling by building more strength to increase her power. She recently finished third in her debut ITU Duathlon outing at the inaugural ITU Multisport World Cup in China.

The Wood Science and Technology student seems to be living a multi-faceted life as well, studying and running her own online-based healthy bakery business – Zeal_KL, at the same time. The young entrepreneur believes in self-funding her sporting live by baking healthy biscotti, granola bars and burnt cheesecake.

“I enjoyed the sport very much. Sometimes, I don’t even know if I chose the sports, or the sports had chosen me.” quipped Allison.

Photos by Pristine Works.