HONGKONG Sports Institute scholarship athlete William Wong Wai-lap prevented a double whitewash of the badminton teams at the hands of China yesterday.
The 23-year-old Olympian, who won two matches to reach the last 16 of the Barcelona Games last summer, fought back from a game down to beat Wan Zhengwen 2-1 in the second singles of the five-match tie.
But top seeds China were never in danger of being beaten, taking the other four points to win through to today's final 4-1.
Hongkong won a bronze medal by reaching the semi-finals with their 5-0 drubbing of Macau on Monday evening.
In the women's team event, Hongkong lost 5-0 to China in the semi-finals but still claimed a bronze in a competition which attracted only five countries from the nine in attendance at the games.
Another Hongkong Olympian, Chan Kin-ngai, played the opening singles in the men's team event but went down 15-5, 15-2 to Liu Jun. Wong pulled the score level with his 2-1 victory over Wan, losing the first game 18-15 but taking the second and third 18-17 and 15-10.
