Hong Kong athletes bagged three silver and two bronze medals at cycling track, sailing, and squash events of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan on Thursday, at least two more medals in tennis are expected later.
Hong Kong’s medal tally now stands at 41 — five gold, 16 silver and 20 bronze, as of Thursday afternoon.
In the women's Madison cycling event at the Games, Hong Kong pair Ceci Lee Sze-wing and Leung Wing-yee won silver.
In the Madison event, each team consists of two athletes. The women's race covers a total of 30 kilometers, with the two riders continuously handing over the baton throughout the race via a hand sling. There is a scoring lap every 10 laps, with the first four teams receiving 5, 3, 2, and 1 points, respectively. The points are doubled on the final sprint lap.
Among the 12 scoring laps, the Hong Kong team finished in the top three each time. After completing the 11th scoring lap, they were in third place, one point behind the second-placed national team. On the final scoring lap, points were doubled. As a result, Hong Kong finished second and got six points, while the national team finished third.
The gold medal went to the Japanese team, who took first place in nine out of the 12 scoring laps and finished with a total of 53 points.
Hong Kong cyclist Chu Tsun-wai won silver in the Men’s Omnium with a total score of 166, trailing Japan’s Umezawa Kanta. China’s Wu Junjie took third place with 157 points.
Hong Kong’s surfing team took in two medals on Thursday, with a silver for Women’s Skiff (49erFX) and a bronze for the Men's Skiff 49er events.
Asian Games debutants Tiffany Mak Hiu-tung and Emily Grace Polson grabbed silver with their steady performance among four teams, losing the championship to Japan.
The city’s returning bronze medalists Russell Williams Aylsworth and Akira Luke Sakai finished in third place among six teams, trailing India, who came in the second, and the champion China.
In the men's squash team event, Hong Kong lost to Pakistan in the semifinals. Since the event does not have a bronze medal match, the SAR bagged a bronze medal.
During the event, squash player Alex Lau Tsz-kwan played in the first match. After losing the first game, he won three games in a row to come back and win 3:1, helping Hong Kong take a 1-0 lead. However, Henry Leung Chi-hin and Lai Cheuk-nam then lost 0:3 and 1:3, and Hong Kong ultimately lost 1:2 in matches.
Hong Kong's women's squash team will compete against Malaysia for the gold medal on Friday afternoon.
Hong Kong’s tennis superstar Coleman Wong on Thursday made history by entering the semifinal of men’s singles, defeating Thailand’s Kasidit Samrej with a straight sets score of 6:3 and 6:0.
Since there will be no bronze medal match, Wong became the first Hong Kong tennis player to get a medal in tennis singles event at the Asian Games. The men's singles semi-finals will be held on Friday.
Hong Kong’s previous Asian Games title in tennis was a silver medal in 1962 for the Women’s Doubles event in Jakarta.
In the meantime, Hong Kong’s Eudice Chong and Wong Hong-yi also entered the semifinal in Women’s Doubles, beating Zhibek Kulambayeva and Sonja Zhiyenbayeva from Kazakhstan with a score of 6:1 and 6:3. They are also set to bag a medal in the tennis event for Hong Kong.
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The Hong Kong team sent a delegation of about 580 athletes competing across 38 sports at the 2026 Asian Games, which will conclude on Sunday. At the last edition in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in 2023, the city won 53 medals — its best-ever performance — with eight gold, 16 silver and 29 bronze.
Contact the writer at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com
