Hong Kong's rowers delivered a strong finish on Thursday morning, bagging two silver medals at the Asian Games.
The first medal was clinched by Winne Hung Wing-yan in the women's lightweight single sculls, followed shortly by teammates Cheung Yuen-shan and Leung Wing-wun in the women's lightweight double sculls with a 0.03-second thriller.
Starting in lane 2, Hung set the early pace, leading for the first 1,000 meters of the 2,000-meter course before Iran's Fatemeh Mojallaltopraghghale overtook her.
She held second place to finish in 7:28.54, about four seconds behind the champion, to take silver.
Mojallaltopraghghale took gold in 7:24.57, with Thailand's Parisa Chaempudsa rounding out the podium in 7:40.61.
The medal marks the first Asian Games medal for the 27-year-old in her third appearance.
"I finally got a medal. It's not gold, but I have no regrets," Hung said. "This proves my hard work hasn't been wasted—all the experience, fitness and technique I've built up over the years have all led to this silver."
With the competition shortened to two days due to poor weather, Cheung and Leung secured a podium in the women's lightweight double sculls, finishing moments later.
Although the pair sat last among five crews at the 1,000-meter mark, they surged in the second half, moving into third with 500 meters to go.
They then overtook Japan in the final stretch to finish second in 6:59.24 — just 0.03 seconds ahead of the Japanese crew.
Iran's Kimia Zarei and Zeinab Norouzi Tazeh Kand finished in 6:53.93 to take gold, while Japan's Chika Yonezawa and Chiaki Tomita finished in 6:59.27 to claim bronze.
"We tried to enjoy the process so we wouldn't get nervous," Leung said, adding that edging Japan by 0.03 seconds was thrilling and that their training had paid off.
For Cheung, competing at the Asian Games for the first time brought pressure — but she saw it as motivation to push on with her teammates.
The medal haul will bring a HK$500,000 cash reward to Hung and a HK$1 million bonus for Cheung and Leung under the Jockey Club Athlete Incentive Awards Scheme.
The scheme awards HK$1 million, HK$500,000 and HK$250,000 to individual gold, silver and bronze medallists and HK$2 million, HK$1 million and HK$500,000 to the top three team finishes.
