Gold slips through Haughey's fingers amid HK drop

Michael Shum

"Flying fish" Siobhan Haughey fell just 0.08 seconds short of snatching another gold for Hong Kong in her 50-meter freestyle swimming event yesterday.

Her silver, however, makes it her fifth medal in this year's Hangzhou Asian Games.

The results mean Hong Kong has dropped to seventh place with five golds, 12 silvers and 15 bronzes, trailing behind Uzbekistan, India and Thailand with six golds, Japan with 18, South Korea with 22 and China with 86.

In her race, Haughey, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist in the event, finished in 24.34 seconds, behind winner Zhang Yufei, who took 24.26 seconds.

Both Haughey and Zhang broke the games record of 24.5 seconds that Zhang had set in the heats.

Haughey's compatriot Tam Hoi-lam finished in 25.55 seconds - 1.29 seconds behind Zhang.

Earlier, the Hong Kong women's cycling team, consisting of future star Lee Sze-wing and Yang Qian-yu, won another silver in the women's madison event with 40 total points - losing by 10 points to Japan who got 50.

Leung Ka-yu too bagged another silver in the men's omnium, finishing with 178 points - 35 behind Japanese athlete Kazushige Kuboki, who got 178.

An emotional Leung said: "I had considered retiring in October, and stopped training for a few months, but returned solely for this Asian Games. I finally won a medal, and I can say I did not let myself down."

At the Tonglu Equestrian Centre, Hong Kong athlete Jacqueline Siu Wing-ying snatched silver in the individual intermediate freestyle dressage event.

Siu scored a 70.1 in technical and 76.8 in artistic, and an average total of 73.45 to place in second place, being edged out by Malaysian Mahamad Fathil Mohd Qabil Ambak, who scored an average of 75.78 to snatch gold.

"I am thrilled to have won medals in two Asian Games in a row," Siu said.

Michael Lee Tsz-hau, Jockey Club chairman and Hong Kong's Equestrian Federation president, said "the club applauds Siu's well-deserved success and my heartfelt congratulations to Jacqueline, who continues to be such an inspiration for the equestrian community."

Another bronze came from the women's foil team - Kuan Yu-ching, Valerie Cheng Hiu-wai, Sophia Wu and Daphne Chan Nok-sze. The team is not satisfied due to their loss to South Korea by 45-25 in the semis and hope to do better.