No Olympic semi-final but taking part is triumph in itself for Hong Kong swimmer Yvette Kong after battles with depression
Claudia Lau beats her PB, but just misses out on place in the last 16
The numbers on the timing clock don’t always tell the whole story. In certain cases, one needs to look into the eyes of the person who put those numbers up there, and with Yvette Kong Man-yi, it was clearly a moment of triumph.
Having beaten depression that almost saw her quit the sport, Kong’s mere presence on the starting blocks of the women’s 100 metres breaststroke was victory in itself.
WATCH: Relive the action involving Hong Kong athletes on Day 2 at the Rio Olympics
She finished seventh in heat 3 in one minute, 09.56 seconds, nearly two seconds slower than the 1:07.69 she clocked in March to earn her place in the Rio Olympics.
Earlier, Claudia Lau Yin-yan turned in an excellent performance to win her heat in the women’s 100m backstroke, clocking 1:01.27 to improve her personal best by half a second. However, it was not quite fast enough to qualify for the next round as she missed out by .38 seconds on a place in the semis as she finished 19th overall.
Kong also failed to make it past the heats but said she gave it her best effort.