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It is the day before Hyrox weekend (June 28-29) at the National Stadium and Physical: 100 star Hong Beom-seok let’s 8days.sg in a little secret during our interview.

He is feeling nervous for race day.

Wait… is the 39-year-old being serious?

The Puma Korea ambassador who impressed audiences worldwide in the gruelling Netflix fitness competition is actually feeling the pressure?

For the uninitiated, Beom-seok, a former firefighter and South Korean special forces soldier, competed in both seasons Physical: 100, coming in second in season two.

He’s in town for the Hyrox Asian Open Championships as the captain of Team Korea, and Puma Singapore organised a special meet-and-greet with his fans as part of the lead-up to the event

According to the father of two (he married at 22), this is his second time to Singapore, and his first public appearance since the show aired.

“The heat and humidity seem a lot higher this time, even more than South Korea. This has caused me needing to work twice as hard,” he tells 8days.sg via a translator.

To acclimatise, Beom-seok has been clocking in nine-kilometre runs since arriving in Singapore.

“I’ve always found Singapore’s harmony between nature and the city amazing. There’s always something to admire during my runs,” he says when asked what stood out most to him while running through the CBD.

Beom-seok tells us he's aiming for a sub-one-hour timing for his Men’s Open race here — he ended up missing it slightly with a timing of 1:00:26 — and has also been strict with his nutrition.

Well, almost.

With a grin, he lets on that he sneaked in a bite of kaya toast, which he adorably referred to as a “kaya sandwich”, just before meeting us, saying it brought back fond memories from his last visit.

At this point, we were a little concerned if he was still down for a push-up challenge with the 8days.sg creative producer.

Also, we wouldn’t want to be responsible for hindering Beom-seok from a podium finish.

Turns out, we had nothing to worry about.

Beom-seok even added to the challenge, showing us what counts as a proper push up.

No prizes for guessing who won the challenge. But hey, it’s not every day one can say they challenged one of Physical: 100's biggest stars.

While most athletes would opt out from any further physical activity, Beom-seok was also seen happily challenging a lucky guest to sandbag lunges during the meet-and-greet after our interview.

Thankfully, he still managed to help Team South Korea clinch first place in the Mixed Relay with a time of 53:39.

Though Physical:100 Season 2aired over a year ago, fans still talk about the bromance between him and winner, Amotti.

Amotti famously shared part of his 300mil won (S$283K) prize money with him.

According to Beom-seok, Amotti gave him about 10 per cent which is about 30mil won (S$28.3K), though in a funny twist, part of that money ended up back with Amotti.

“I actually used most of it as a wedding gift when Amotti got married last year,” he laughs. “There wasn’t much left, so I simply spent it on having a good meal with my family”.

Photos: Aik Chen, hongbeomseok_/IG hyroxsg/IG