After the euphoria surrounding Hong Kong's five gold medals in the inaugural Asian Indoor Cycling Championships last month, the Hong Kong Cycling Association is lowering its sights for the forthcoming World Championships. Association official Semuel Shing Sau-ping was cautious about the SAR's chances at the tournament, saying it will be 'extremely difficult' for Hong Kong to come away with a medal. The World Championships will be held in Prague, the Czech Republic, November 19-21. Hong Kong did really well to finish with five gold medals in the competition held in our own backyard. But I'm afraid the World Championships is at a higher level. Most of the world's best riders come from Europe and not Asia, although we hope to finish as the best Asian team in Prague,' she said. 'Comparing our riders with the world's best, our riders averaged 270 or 280 for their gold medal winning routines in the artistic singles but they would have to score close to 320 points to have any chance for medals at the World Championships. 'The world record for the artistic singles is 340, so you can see that there's a huge gap between our riders and the world's best,' she said. 'We might reach that kind of level one day, but we must be given another two to three years of hard training in order to bridge the gap.'