2019 SEA Games: Hong Kong world champion Harry Clarke used to get whipped by Filipino skateboarders, now he is coaching them
- The 21-year-old is the International Downhill Federation world champion after winning the global series
- He started out on the hills of Sai Kung, Tai Tam and Tai Mo Shan before venturing to the Philippines and Europe: ‘It’s been all downhill since then’
Downhill skateboarder Harry Clarke knew he was good. He had conquered the hills of Sai Kung, Tai Tam and Tai Mo Shan and was winning everything in Hong Kong. He felt the time was ripe to take on the rest of Asia.
So he and his friends entered some events in the Philippines – and were promptly thrashed. It was an eye-opener for the former King George V School student but he was determined to improve. He decided to hang around in the Philippines and compete against the locals until he was as good, if not better, than them.
Six years later, a 21-year-old Clarke returns to the Philippines – no longer the naive upstart but a world champion, no less, and a coach to those very same skaters who used to make minced meat of him when he first ventured out of Hong Kong.
“It was around 2013, we did a lot of events here and I was winning all of them, I thought I was hot, was pretty good I want to try somewhere else, a bigger scene,” said Clarke, who was recently crowned International Downhill Federation world champion and has been appointed coach of the Philippines Southeast Asian Games squad.
“I went to the Philippines and got absolutely whipped. I didn’t win anything, I got absolutely thrashed. Then I went back and said to myself ‘OK, look, we are not the best here, those guys are miles ahead of us’. So we just kept racing there, it was a really good training ground for us.