Leung Chu-yan gave himself the best birthday present he could have wished for when he secured his ticket to the London Games with an impressive victory over former Olympic champion Ryu Seung-min of South Korea yesterday.
Leung, who turned 33 yesterday, outplayed the 2004 Athens Games champion 11-7, 5-11, 11-9, 12-10, 7-11, 11-5 in the semi-finals of the Asian Olympic table tennis qualifying tournament at Queen Elizabeth Stadium.
'It is a great result,' said Leung, who also competed at the Olympics in 2000 (Sydney), 2004 (Athens) and was a reserve at the 2008 Beijing Games.
'I can't believe my birthday fell on the same day as this semi-final. It is so wonderful the two things coming together. It's definitely the best birthday gift.'
Leung will now make up the third member of the Hong Kong men's team after Tang Peng and Jiang Tian-yi qualified by virtue of their world ranking. Tang and Jiang will also be allowed to start in the singles competition in London.
Against Ryu, whom he had never beaten before, Leung showed great determination from the beginning, taking full advantage of his strong forehand to give the Korean few chances.
'I have improved my return of serve which was my greatest weakness against Ryu before,' Leung said. 'But even more important was my mental state as I kept focused throughout the match, even when I was losing.