Heat, rain, sickness and an emotional roller-coaster ride. Hong Kong's triumphant women's fours team had to go through all kinds of physical and mental demands before they bagged a gold medal at the Asian championships in Kuala Lumpur last week. It was the first time in six years that a Hong Kong team had won a gold medal at the tournament.
'What we had to go through together as a team was really something. It was only through a fantastic team spirit that we built during the tournament that we managed to do the improbable,' said team manager Queenie Lai Siu-lin, who watched debutants Jessie So Pui-ling and Joanna Nam Ching-ying plus the experienced Tammy Tham Mee-kim and Alice Lee Fong-kiu (skipper) walk away with top prize.
'It was a huge struggle from beginning to end and something our bowlers will all remember for a long time. When we won our final game against Malaysia, it was a great feeling and something we were very proud of.'
Hong Kong picked up their first gold medal at the championships since winning the men's pair and women's triples in Brunei in 2006. But what makes last week's achievement more impressive was that the team defeated a professional side in the final.
And amateur Hong Kong (all team members hold down full-time jobs) finished unbeaten in the competition, winning their round-robin matches with ease before defeating Thailand 20-13 in the semi-finals.
Hong Kong also had to pick themselves up after the women's triples team of Lee, Nam and So narrowly lost their semi-final on the last wood against a Filipino side.