As the television cameras panned the audience at the Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre, they kept returning to to the members of the Hong Kong swim team, who were waving miniature Bauhinia flags and cheering. That Hong Kong did well, for the second consecutive day, in short-course swimming was not a surprise to coach Chan King-yee, though he was thrilled with the times set by his charges.
'We expected the medals and they did come in so I'm happy,' Chan said. 'We know [our swimmers] will win but then their times are better than we had hoped for.'
The Hong Kong swimmers won seven medals yesterday, three gold, a silver and three bronze. Sherry Tsai Hiu-wai won gold in the women's 50m backstroke (28.08) and was part of the gold-medal winning 4x100m freestyle team along with Sze Hang-yu, Hannah Wilson and Stephanie Au Hoi-shun. Au won a bronze in the 50m backstroke, while Wilson and Sze won gold and silver, respectively, in the 100m butterfly.
The men's team won their first medals of the games with a bronze from Geoffrey Cheah in the 50m backstroke. Cheah also anchored a bronze-medal performance in the 4x100m freestyle relay with Andres Tung, Yan Ho-chun and Lum Ching-tat.
The night's work also brought two new Hong Kong records. Despite finishing seventh in the 100m butterfly (55.47), David Wong Kai-wai broke his own record by three-tenths of a second. Wilson set a Hong Kong record with 1:00.06 in the 100m butterfly.
'I wasn't expecting to go quite so fast in the fly,' Wilson said. 'It was a pretty good run for me.'