How Hung Chung-yam missed out on Hong Kong’s first Olympic medal: seconds cost Hong Kong rider a potential bronze in Seoul 88 road race
- Rider clocked same time as German bronze medallist in the men’s road race but placed 12th out of 136 riders after sprint finish
- Hesitattion to join a two-rider breakaway during the final stages, cost him the chance to become Hong Kong’s first-ever Olympic medallist
Hung Chung-yam hesitated as two riders broke away from the main peloton. The Hong Kong rider felt good despite the fast pace but was unsure if he’d join the pair on the breakaway attack. However, that moment of uncertainty cost him dearly.
It was the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, eight years before windsurfer Lee Lai-shan became the first Hong Kong athlete to win a medal at the Games when she took the gold in the Atlanta Games. Hung could have been the first, but that split-second’s hesitation in the men’s road race meant he finish 12th – second-last among the main pack sprinting for third place, all recording the same time as the bronze medal winner.
“We all know Hong Kong had never achieved a medal at the Olympic Games at that time and I didn’t think too much about that until the final stages of the race,” said Hung, now 57 and a successful insurance broker at management level. “I was among the break away group of 13 riders and with only 10 kilometres left, it appeared as if the three medallists would come from there.
“In fact, among this group, I was the only rider from Asia as the rest were all Westerners. It was going to be a tough battle in the final sprint.”
On a fine September 27 day in 1988, Hung and two other Hong Kong riders, Leung Hung-tak, now chairman of the Hong Kong Cycling Association, and Chow Tat-ming, were among the 136 riders in the men’s 196-kilometre road race over a “very flat and easy” Tongil-ro Circuit in Paju, according to the official Olympedia.