A Hong Kong wheelchair fencer was awarded the best newcomer to the Paralympic movement in light of her stunning debut in the Athens games, where she lunged and parried her way to four gold medals. Yu Chui-yee, a 21-year-old from Sham Shui Po, won the foil and epee individual events and then went on to help her team take two golds. 'I am so delighted to win this Best Games Debut award. It is such a great honour,' she said at the International Paralympic Committee's general assembly in Beijing. 'It is so nice to have your efforts recognised, not only in Hong Kong but all over the world.' Yu, who had one leg amputated above the knee after a tumour developed when she was 11, took up fencing five years ago and has been unbeaten in major tournaments since July 2002. While Hong Kong were 17th in the overall medals tally in the Athens Paralympics, they were the dominant force in wheelchair fencing, taking eight of the 15 gold medals on offer. In the run-up to Athens, Yu and her teammates were put through a meticulous training programme in the Sports Institute in Sha Tin. 'We have great coaches and the team put in a lot of work before Athens. We trained at least five days a week, often for five hours each day,' she said. 'So it was very rewarding to see all that effort pay off.' Rutger Sturkenboom, a member of the sport's committee that selected the winners, said Yu's debut had been 'absolutely excellent'. 'But an important element is also her character. She is extremely charismatic and a great ambassador for Paralympics and the vision of the movement,' he said. Yu, a geography and resource management student at the Chinese University, has her eyes firmly on Beijing 2008. 'I will not make any medal predictions but we will get prepared and hope to put on a very good performance for Beijing,' she said. 'The games there are particularly special to us of course because they are in our capital city, so we hope to do very well.' The IPC's best male athlete award went to Brazilian Clodoaldo Silva, a swimmer who has cerebral palsy. He took six gold medals and a silver, setting four world and five Paralympic records in the process. Also in the pool, Mayumi Narita from Japan won best female athlete. Wheelchair-bound from the age of 13, she has dominated the swimming events in recent times, netting seven golds and a bronze in Athens, and setting six world and seven Paralympic records. The Canadian men's wheelchair basketball team was awarded the 'best team performance award' after marching undefeated to a gold medal in Athens.
