CHEERED on by Chief Secretary Anson Chan, swimmer Mark Kwok Kin-ming set a new Hong Kong record with a time of three minutes 58.94 seconds in the men's 400 metres freestyle heats.
It was the only Hong Kong record to fall on the first day of action at the Olympic pool. The SAR swimming team, watched by Chan who is in town to push Hong Kong's bid for the 2006 Asian Games, know that they can never be in the hunt for medals. What matters is establishing personal bests or, even better, setting new local records.
Kwok, 23, did just that as he finished second in his heat - having trailed winner Woo Chul of Korea the entire race - to beat his old time of 4:00.44 which won him a bronze medal at the 1998 Asian Games.
This exemplifies the vast gulf between Asian standards and the rest of the world. A bronze medal winning time in Asia, which was bettered by almost two seconds, was still not enough to get Kwok within sniffing distance of the finals.
Kwok's time saw him finish 30th overall in the list headed by Australian golden boy Ian Thorpe, who won his heat in an Olympic record time of 3:44.65 - a mind-boggling 14.29 seconds ahead of Kwok.
It was a creditable performance by Kwok, who was third behind the Korean and Argentina's Agustin Fiorilli. Kwok caught up with the latter in the last 100 metres and overtook him with 50 metres to go.