HK bags two medals in Asiad karate and squash

Hong Kong karateka Grace Lau Mo-sheung and squash player Chan Sin-yuk won bronze and silver, respectively, at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Thursday.

Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Lau earned 43.30 points in the women's individual Kata event by performing in the Tomari Bassai form, nearly three points ahead of Vietnamese rival Nguyen Thi Phuong, who used the Ohan Dai Kata.

Lau stated that she was very familiar with the routine, as she had been practicing it regularly but had never performed it in a medal match before.

The two-time Asian Games bronze medalist said winning a bronze was not ideal, but she said it was a unique feeling to win the same medal as the previous Asian Games.

Meanwhile, Chan Sin-yuk competed in the gold medal match at the HOC Squash Court.

The first four rounds were an exciting back-and-forth, with Chan winning games 1 and 3 with a score of 11-8 and 12-10.

While Malaysian rival Sivasangari Subramaniam won the second and fourth games with scores of 13-15 and 9-11, pushing their bout to the fifth and final round.

The final nail-biter also involved a back-and-forth, with Chan scoring four consecutive points. Subramaniam did not let up and brought the score back to 7-8 with her relentless assault and brought the match to a tie score of 10-10.

Per the squash rules, the winner has to break the tie with a two-point lead, and Lau hit the ball out of bounds at the end, falling to Subramaniam with a score of 10-12.

She finished with a silver medal in addition to the team event silver she won last Saturday (Sept 30).