Hong Kong's swimmers, including gold medallist Kent Cheung (front centre), celebrate their medal-winning successes with coaches on MondayOn Monday, boys' team captain Kent Cheung Kin-tat won gold in the 200m freestyle, soon after helping teammates Damien Ma Chi-wang, Cliff Ching Kim-fu and Anson Chan Tsz-ho secure a bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Kent won his third medal, a silver, after finishing second in the 100m freestyle yesterday.
The girls also impressed on Monday, with Heather Cheng Hei-tung clinching silver in the 100m backstroke (GroupA), Wong Yee-ching winning bronze in the 100m butterfly and the girls' 4x100m freestyle relay team of Yee-ching, Heather, Rachel Leung Ya-yuan and Cheng Yuen-yue also taking bronze. Rachel claimed silver in the girls' 100m freestyle yesterday.
The swimming team had managed only a few hours' sleep before the competition began on Sunday after their connecting flight from Beijing to Baotou was initially delayed - then cancelled altogether - because of bad weather.
They were forced to wake up early to take a special morning flight, and then had to attend Saturday evening's opening ceremony. They finally got to sleep after midnight, but managed only a few more hours' sleep before rising early to start their swimming events the next morning.
Kent, who finished his A-level exams in April, was delighted with his performance after he stopped training to concentrate on his studies. "I stopped training for half a year and started again only in May when I finished my exams," he said. "Today's time is not my personal best, but it's my recent best."
Rachel, of Diocesan Girls' School - the captain of the girls' team - said the medal successes were inspired partly by the earlier disappointment of seeing Yee-ching miss out on a medal in the girls' 200m individual medley, when she finished fourth, and Anson also finishing fourth in the boys' 400m freestyle final. Rachel said: "They were so close to medals and it inspired the whole team to work harder. We know we are very close to winning a medal in most events. We are giving our all for Hong Kong."
Yee-ching tipped the girls to win gold in the 4x100m medley relay today. "We're strong in all four styles while other teams may not have a full team of outstanding swimmers in each style," she said.
The Hong Kong swimmers are competing for more medals today. Visit this page for live results.