Hong Kong's Sarah Lee (right) edges out Australia's Anna Meares.It’s nearly the end of the Rio Olympics and local athletes have broken a number of records and given Hong Kong lots of reasons to be proud, so Young Post rounds up some of the highlights so far.
Cycling
Cycling superstar Sarah Lee Wai-sze advanced to the quarter-final of the women’s sprint on Monday, in which she came in 6th overall.
The victory was even sweeter considering Meares had nudged Lee’s handlebars in the semi-finals of the keirin Sunday, causing Lee to take a painful-looking tumble.
But there were no hard feelings on Monday as the pair hugged each other on the warm-down lap.
Meares, who went on to win bronze in the keirin, insisted she had nothing to apologise for, though she felt sorry for Lee.
For her part, Lee neither asked for nor accepted any sympathy.
“Don’t worry about me. I am okay. I just need to clean the wounds and get to sleep early.”
Hong Kong team manager Johnny Chan Chung-yu was confident Lee would recover and be in with a great chance of winning a medal in the sprint.
“She’s very strong. She’ll be alright,” Chan said. “She definitely has a chance in the sprint.”
“The crash was just an accident, just one of those things. We can’t blame the Australian rider [Meares].”
Lee was due to face the formidable world keirin champion Kristina Vogel in the quarter-finals last night.
Badminton
Badminton superstar Angus Ng Ka-long’s defeat in the last 16 on Monday ended the city’s hopes of winning a badminton medal at the Rio Olympics.
The 22 year old narrowly lost 0-2 (21-23, 17-21) to eighth-ranked South Korean Son Wan-ho in the last 16.
Ng, ranked 20th in the world, had high hopes of challenging for a medal after beating two-time defending Olympic champion Lin Dan and his compatriot Chen Long this year.
However, his rival Son proved too strong and it was his third win over Ng this year.
Table tennis
Hong Kong’s table tennis men’s team (Wong Chun-ting, Tang Peng and Ho Kwan-kit) was beaten 3-1 by Japan in the quarter-finals on Monday.
Hongkongers were hopeful after Tang beat Koki Niwa 3-2 (8-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8) in the first match.
But in the second match Wong was beaten by Jun Mizutani 3-2 (11-5, 11-9, 3-11, 10-12, 11-8).
Tang and youngster Ho teamed up for the doubles and lost 3-1 (11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 11-4) to Maharu Yoshimura and Niwa before Yoshimura saw off Wong in the last match 3-1 (11-8, 13-11, 5-11, 11-6) to seal Japan’s win.
It was a disappointing end to Hong Kong’s Rio journey, which started with high hopes of at least a semi-final place for the men’s team. Table tennis is one of three sports in which Hong Kong has won an Olympic medal, taking silver at the 2004 Athens Games in the men’s doubles.
But for young table tennis players like Wong, the Rio Olympics served as a great opportunity to gain valuable experience and prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Long jump
Hong Kong’s Chan Ming-tai came 17th out of 32 in the men’s long jump final on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to qualify.
The 21-year-old achieved a commendable 7.70 metres on his first jump, followed by attempts of 7.76m and 7.42m. Only the 12 best jumps qualify for the final, with Jamaican Damar Forbes’ 7.85m claiming the last spot.