The cycling ace took gold in the sprint and bronze at the keirin, marking a great start to her qualification campaign for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Hong Kong cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze won two medals at the opening event of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Track Cycling World Cup series in Paris. She captured a gold in the sprint event on Saturday and a bronze in the keirin event today.
The 31-year-old performed spectacularly at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome in the first qualification event for the campaign leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In the sprint event, Lee defeated Stephanie Morton of Australia in the final with a 2-0 win in the best-of-three tie while Daria Shmeleva of Russia beat Mathilde Gros of France 2-1 for the bronze.
In today’s keirin event, where athletes sprint for victory after following a motorcycle-paced start, Lee stormed into the keirin final after winning both of the first two rounds but failed to continue her momentum in the last encounter which was won by Laurine van Riessen of the Netherlands. Daria Shmeleva of Russia was second.
Watch: Sarah Lee claims bronze in Paris (skip to 2:53.20 for keirin final)
Lee said she was slightly rushed in the final as she struggled with the pace but accepted third place was not a bad result.
She said she went to Paris with the target of clocking a good time in the sprint qualifiers but managed only second place. She will try again in the next world cup series event in Milton, Canada later this week.
The series culminates in a sixth and final leg held in Hong Kong at the end of January 2019.
“I have never been to Canada before and have some expectations for this, the second round of the season,” she posted on Facebook.
Lee completed the 200-metre sprint qualifier in 10.6 seconds, just behind Stephanie Morton of Australia, who set a time of 10.516.
Lee recorded 10.583 at the Asian Games in Indonesia two months ago.