Cyclist Chloe Leung Wing-yee took bronze in the women's individual road race on Tuesday, bagging Hong Kong's first medal of the day at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Leung finished in 2 hours, 50 minutes and 46 seconds, just 41 seconds behind China's Guo Li and Afghanistan's Fariba Hashimi, who took gold and silver respectively.
Riding in a pack of 40, Leung stayed with the main group early on, sitting 12th after the first two laps. She surged into the leading group on the third lap, but was dropped by the two leaders on a descent, crossing the line in third.
The bronze came two days after Leung finished fourth in the individual time trial — a result she said drove her to go all out in the road race.
"I was really unhappy two days ago with my performance," she said. "But today I wanted to give everything I had with no regrets."
Leung admitted she lost her nerve on the descent after the leading trio broke away, adding that she chased back only to see the two leaders working together on the flat and pull away again.
"Still, I'm very happy to get bronze. The hard work of the past few months has paid off a little,” she added, expressing her wish to pair up with Lee Sze-Wing in future events to win more medals.
Leung will receive HK$250,000 from the Jockey Club Athlete Incentive Awards Scheme, which awards HK$1 million, HK$500,000 and HK$250,000 to individual gold, silver and bronze medalists at the 20th Asian Games, and HK$2 million, HK$1 million and HK$500,000 to the top three team placings.
