HONG Kong scullers Ho Kim-fai and Malina Ngai Man-lin made a golden start in their build-up to the Asian Games by winning a gold medal at the Italian National Regatta in Piediluco.
With no lightweight single sculls events on the Asian Games programme in Hiroshima, Japan, in October, 1993 East Asian Games gold medal-winner Ho is concentrating on the lightweight doubles this year.
In partnership with Ngai, the pair won their first build-up event in the lightweight double - and then silver in the women's open double.
Racing at the end of a two-week training camp, Hong Kong crews won three golds and three silvers.
Ho, a 31-year-old former schoolteacher, finished first in the lightweight single for the second year running and in the lightweight double, with Ngai.
The third gold went to the men's lightweight quad of Matt Richardson, Lui Kam-chi, Chiang Wing-hung and Chau Chau-yau.