Singapore hurdler Kerstin Ong and her BMW X2 SUV

SINGAPORE – Given national hurdler Kerstin Ong’s association with speed, you would expect her choice of wheels to be similarly racy – a low-slung coupe or perhaps a two-seat roadster.

However, Singapore’s 100m hurdles record-holder gets around in something more posh and sensible – a BMW X2 sport utility vehicle (SUV).

A little-known fact is that the 28-year-old grew up around cars. Her maternal grandparents ran a renowned automotive spray-paint business in Sin Ming called Lim Yew Boo Spray Paint Co, which was the go-to place for many owners of supercars and high-end marques due to the quality of its work.

“It was incredibly cool. Every time I visited the workshop, there would be different cars there – Lamborghini, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, vintage cars,” she says of the business which opened in 1974.

“Seeing so many beautiful and different cars up close sparked my curiosity and appreciation. It wasn’t just about how the cars looked, but also the craftsmanship behind restoring and transforming them.”

Her grandfather, Mr Lim Yew Boo, died in mid-January at age 84. His legacy lives on in the spray-paint shop, which is run by his son and continues to handle a stream of exotic cars, as well as in Ms Ong’s enduring passion for cars.

In fact, the licence plate on her X2 is a homage of sorts to her grandfather, whose cars always bore the 8999 number.

As for Ms Ong, she has been fortunate enough to have had access to various cars over the years.

Between 2017 and 2021, when she was studying at Singapore Management University for a bachelor’s degree in business management with a double major in marketing and communication, her mother bought her a string of soon-to-be-scrapped used cars to shuttle between campus and training. They included a Honda Jazz, Peugeot 207CC, Volkswagen Jetta and Volkswagen Golf.

After Ms Ong started work in a marketing agency, managing advertising placement strategy for a major luxury goods conglomerate, the first car she bought for herself in 2022 at the age of 24 was a used Ford Focus.

She says it was “something affordable that I could manage and which was reliable enough to allow me to commute between work, training and competitions”.

Slightly over a year later, she swopped the Ford for a second-hand Mercedes-Benz CLA180, which was her dream car then.

In March 2025, while walking past a roadshow at Bedok Mall on a weekend, she spotted a new BMW X2 on display going for about $220,000 – a price she found attractive. After taking the car on a test drive, she found it “smoother than expected, while also being practical for my day-to-day life”.

Ms Ong says she loved the X2’s size, its comfortable cabin and its large dash-mounted touchscreen. She bought the car after thinking it over that weekend.

She is happy with her decision to switch to a practical SUV because she frequently commutes between multiple locations daily, while transporting training equipment and recovery tools. She also enjoys camping and fishing, so the X2’s extra space is put to good use.

However, style has not been forgotten, and she says she chose the X2, with its coupe-SUV silhouette, over its more upright X1 sibling because it looks sportier, especially with the M Sport bodykit.

Ms Ong is candid about the fact that the X2, as with any new car in Singapore, is a big expense, especially as she left her job in advertising strategy in late 2025 to pursue athletics full time.

Walking away from the job was a huge sacrifice, as she had built a stable and fulfilling career in the marketing industry over more than five years, working with clients such as prestige brands and a famous fast-food chain.

Despite being a national athlete, she does not draw a salary for representing Singapore. However, she says that at this stage of life, “I felt it was the right moment to go all-in on my sport”.

Still, owning a car is an intentional choice which she sees as an investment in her athletics career.

She says she does not splurge on luxury bags or items, and would rather channel her resources towards easier and more comfortable commutes, as the time saved allows her to do more in a day and recover better.

As a full-time athlete, she trains nine times a week – either at the track or gym – with each session lasting two hours.

Outside of running, Ms Ong is also a popular social media personality with over 67,000 followers on TikTok alone, so much of her spare time is spent on content creation, video editing and working on video storyboards.

Any remaining downtime is spent with family, or just resting. She also enjoys cycling, but her packed training schedule prevents her from doing so regularly.

To aspiring sportspersons, Ms Ong – who started running competitively at age 10 – advises them to carve out time and space to pursue their passion properly. “The sacrifices are real, but so is the regret of not trying. Most importantly, enjoy the journey – that’s what keeps you going in the long run.”

What’s in the boot?