From: mok@fortsc.enet.dec.com (Charles Mok)
Subject: Re: Hong Kong athletes in olympics
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: 13 AUG 92 10:45:01 PST


Olympic Sports for Hong Kong

South China Morning Post. August 7, 1992.

HONGKONG is still waiting for its first Olympic medal and has only one more
chance, as a British territory, to achieve that elusive piece of sporting glory
in Atlanta in 1996.

The territory's athletes went into the Barcelona Olympics with expectations
higher than ever.

Lee Lai-shan was a genuine medal prospect in windsurfing and the table tennis
girls, Chan Tan-hui and Chan Po-wa, were heavily favoured to win honors for
Hongkong.

But despite putting in excellent performances, they were unable to reap the
rewards they worked hard for in the past four years.

Lee, the Asian women's champion, finished in 11th place after completing her 10
races.

She got off to a bad start in the week-long event in a field where more than a
handful were good enough to win gold.

But she proved she is indeed a world class sailor by saving her best for last,
finishing fourth in the final race.  The event was won by New Zealander Barbara
Kendall.

Table tennis was a major disappointment.  The harshness of the draw pitted
Hongkong players against powerful Chinese opponents.

But the territory's main prospect, world number seven Chan Tan-hui, never got
that far, losing her preliminary group match against unknown Romanian Emilio
Ciosu 21-14, 21-18.

Chan was one match away from a medal against 1989 world champion, Qiao Hong, of
China, but went down 21-13, 21-10, 21-13.

She had earlier shown great form to beat Czech Marie Hrachova 21-11, 21-17,
21-7, and the ease with which Qiao Hong beat the Hongkong player was somewhat
of a surprise.

Hongkong coach Chang Sui-ying said: "Qiao played a better game than Chan and
deserved to win."

"We did well and showed that we can compete with the best.  The players we lost
to are all the best in the world."

The "competing with the best" factor is probably key for the cynics who will
jump at the opportunity to accuse Hongkong of yet another poor Olympics.

Four years ago, the territory could not even compete with the moderate, proving
that Hongkong sport is slowly maturing.

The swimming squad was no exception.  True, they did not come close to any
world records or even reach any finals.

But the performances were beyond expectations.  Eight Hongkong national records
were established and a host of personal best times were achieved.

It was a tremendous boost to the profile of Hongkong swimmers and the sport can
be assured of gaining more success in the future.

But Hongkong continue to struggle in track and field.

Our two sprinters in Barcelona turned in disappointing times.  Ku Wai-ming,
running in the 100 metres sprint, clocked 10.74.

Although running into a head wind of 1.6 seconds, Ku was well outside the
Hongkong record of 10.59 seconds.  He finished fifth in his heat.

Pat Kwok-wai, the territory's controversial 200 metres sprinter, was second
last in his heat in a time of 22.45 seconds.  His personal best is 21.80
seconds, achieved more than a year ago.

Pat's selection was criticised by many top athletes in Hongkong because they
felt he did not put enough effort into his preparations.

He also failed to perform during the warm-up races.  

Hongkong also failed to make a mark in the archery range.  Dedicated archer
Fung Yick, who gave up his full-time job a year ago to train for Barcelona, was
67th in the 70-odd field.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.hongkong