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Nazvi Careem

HONG KONG rower Ho Kim-fai was beaten by China's Asian Games gold medal favourite Cao Mianying in yesterday's women's single sculls elimination heat - but national coach Chris Perry remains confident of her silver medal chances at the Ashidagawa Regatta Course.

 Cao advances straight to Monday's final, but Ho has the chance to join her today when she competes in the repechage with two other rowers.

 Heavyweight men's sculler Michael Tse won his heat to enter the semi-finals, while the men's fours team has a second chance in the repechage and the women's doubles, already assured of a bronze medal, had a comfortable workout yesterday.

 Perry said everything has gone to plan so far as Ho takes on Japan's Noriko Shibuta and Kazakhstan's Vera Zolotovsaia in the repechage, with the top two entering the final against Cao and Korea's Kim Mi-jeong.

 'In Ho's case, we did not expect to beat the Chinese woman, but we expect her to enter the final through the repechage,' said Perry.

 'She went fast for the first 1,000 metres but then eased off because she did not want to give too much away.

 'The Kazakhstan rower did not look all that impressive, but then again, I don't think the others wanted to show too much as well [in the heat].'  Ho clocked eight minutes 03.98 seconds over the 2,000-metre course with Cao recording the fastest time of the heats with an impressive 7:51.35.

 Both Shibuta and Zolotovskaia were slower than Ho, but Kim had the second fastest time with a 7:59.88.

 Tse clocked 7:20.55 in winning his heat against Japan's Daisaku Takeda, who was a little more than two seconds behind, and Burma's Kyaw Win.

 But, again, Perry said he has yet to see the other rowers at their full potential.

 The Hong Kong men's coxless fours team of Chan Kwok-leung, Lui Kam-chi, Chung Chi-lok and Lo Sing-yan was involved in a tremendous battle with South Korea in their heat, eventually settling for second place only 0.62 seconds behind.

 They go through to the repechage for a second shot at reaching the final.

 'It was a brilliant race,' said Perry.

   'We were level with the Koreans for the first 500 metres before they took a two-second lead.

 'For the last 1,000 metres we were gaining on them but we just ran out of water.'  Malina Ngai Man-lin and Tsang Hau-yuk, in the women's lightweight doubles, came third in their trial yesterday.

 The pair, barring any unexpected disasters, are assured of at least a bronze as two of the five crews originally entered for the event have been withdrawn.

 Singapore never showed up while the Taiwanese crew were too heavy in bodyweight and were disqualified.

 But Perry said: 'Again, we wound down after 1,000 metres because we did not want to show too much.

 'It was a trial race and did not really have much significance. It's a shame there are only three crews in the race, but our target is to get the silver medal.'  The Chinese crew of Ou Shaoyan and Zhong Aifang won the trial in 7:25.20 with Japan's Rie Saito and Eri Nonaka, the territory's rivals for the silver medal, second in 7:36.28.

 Ngai and Tsang clocked 7:51.60 and will need to find a few extra lengths for the final.



Perry strokes Ho's medal aspirations after loss in heat