Medal chase over: Hong Kong badminton pair fail to reach the play-off stage after tough Chinese opponents
Cathy Chau and Reginald Lee lose to top seeds Zhang Nan and Xhao Yunlei in their penultimate group match and have pride to play for in final Rio appearance
Hong Kong’s Cathy Chau Hoi-wah will ponder her future as an athlete after she and her partner Reginald Lee Chun-hei failed to reach the play-off rounds of the badminton mixed doubles competition in Rio.
Chau and Lee lost 21-15, 21-15 to the top-seeded Chinese pair of Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei in group A, their second defeat.
WATCH: relive the action involving Hong Kong athletes on Day 6 at the Rio Olympics
On Thursday, they lost in three games to Indonesia’s Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto, who on Friday beat the other group A team, Germany’s Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels, in straight games to confirm Hong Kong’s exit.
Women’s singles player Yip Pui-yin was also beaten in her first preliminary match, going down 5-21, 21-13, 21-19 to Estonia’s Kati Tolmoff while the women's doubles team of Tse Yuen-suet and Poon Lok-kan lost for the second time - 21-15, 21-13 to Malaysia's Vivian Hoo Kah Mu and Woon Khe Wei.
Hong Kong’s Lee Chun-hei and Chau Hoi-wah have high hopes at badminton world championships
In their last match, the Hong Kong pair play the Germans and the 30-year-old Chau said she did not know if she would be around for the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.