Hong Kong's Sarah Lee wins bronze for first medal of World Cup season
Hong Kong sprinter beats French rival 2-0 in third-place face-off in Cali, Colombia
Sarah Lee Wai-sze broke her duck in the track cycling World Cup season with a bronze medal in the sprint, while the Hong Kong women's pursuit team also caught the eye.
After a disappointing run in the two previous legs in Guadalajara and London, Lee finally secured her first World Cup medal of the season in Cali, Colombia, beating Sandie Clair of France in the bronze-medal face-off at Velodrome Alcides Nieto Patino, the venue for last year's world championships.
Lee, who lost to Elis Ligtlee of the Netherlands in the semi-finals, made no mistake with a 2-0 win over the Frenchwomen in the best-of-three tie.
We did some specific training for the Cali World Cup with an altitude training camp in Kunming. It worked well for the team and hopefully they can keep the momentum
Ligtlee went on to lift the title, overcoming mainlander Guo Shuang 2-0 in the final.
With top sprinters Anna Meares of Australia and Germany's Kristina Vogel opting out of the final round of the series, Lee stood a good chance of adding another medal in her last event, the keirin, but could not rise to the occasion, finishing seventh.
Hong Kong Cycling Association chairman Leung Hung-tak said Lee's form had gradually improved after struggling over the first two legs and this was important in preparations for next month's Asian and world championships.
"We did some specific training for the Cali World Cup with an altitude training camp in Kunming," said Leung. "It worked well for the team and hopefully they can keep the momentum."
The Asian Championships in Thailand and the world championships in Paris offer valuable qualification points for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Other than Lee's two sprinting events, the women's team pursuit at the 2016 Olympics is another target and their performance in Cali certainly raised a few eyebrows.
The quartet of Meng Zhaojuan, Leung Po-yee, Pang Yao and Yang Qianyu finished seventh out of 17 teams after a fourth place in the qualifying round. This is the first time a pursuit team from Hong Kong have reached the second round in the World Cup.
However, it was their time of four minutes 32.293 seconds in defeating New Zealand in the face-off for seventh place that marks them as a rising force in Asia. As well as a Hong Kong record, it was also the second-fastest time in the run-offs, behind Australia's time of 4:31.527 that won the gold medal.
The same Hong Kong quartet finished the last World Cup leg in London in 4:43.644.
In the men’s omnium, Leung Chun-wing impressed run on debut, taking 10th place out of 24 riders. The promising youngster did extremely well in the last leg of the six-discipline event when he won the points race with 69 points. Leung was called up to the team only after top rider Cheung King-lok failed to make the trip to Cali. Diao Xiaojuan came 12th in the women’s omnium, which is also her best result in the three-leg World Cup series. She was 15th overall in the series.
