Windsurfer Hayley Chan Hei-man made it into the women’s RS:X medal race, but teammate Michael Cheng Chun-leung is out of the men’s after a disappointing run in his last three races. With all 12 regular races completed in Enoshima on Thursday, Chan, who last appeared in the 2012 London Olympics despite a life-threatening injury sustained pre-Games, finished eighth overall among the 27 boardsailors. Only the top 10 boats are eligible for the medal race on Saturday, with double points awarded. Chan had an excellent run in the last three races on Thursday, finishing fourth, eighth and third, respectively. “She had some very good performance today despite rough conditions, with strong wind and choppy waters favouring the bigger built boardsailors and not her,” said windsurfing head coach Chan King-yin. “She learned the conditions well and managed every opportunity that came her way to get a better result. “She will now be in the medal race and this will also be the last time the RS:X discipline will feature in the Olympics. She feels very happy as one of those who will be racing. Chan will be trying to improve her ranking and enjoy this last moment.” Hong Kong windsurfers Cheng and Chan stay in hunt in Tokyo The world governing body already decided to replace RS:X with new sailboarding edition, iFoil, for the 2024 Paris Games. The new equipment has been touted to make windsurfing more exciting and improve competitors’ speed. Windsurfing is scored according to its so-called low-point system, where the first placed finisher scores 1 point, second place 2, and so on. Chan accumulated 91 points over 12 races after every competitor’s lowest result was discarded. It will be difficult for the Hong Kong representative to challenge for a podium position as China’s Lu Yunxiu leads the rankings with 30 points, followed by Emma Wilson (Great Britain) on 34, while defending champion Charline Picon (France) is third with 36. Hong Kong windsurfers shrug off Covid-19 concerns at their hotel Coach Chan also praised Cheng’s hard work dover the last three races, regardless of his finish. “He was at one point in the leading pack but could not take advantage to hang in there,” he said. “It has been a long preparation for the Olympics after it was pushed back for a year, and the pandemic also disrupted our build-up as we have had fewer overseas training opportunities against the best boardsailors.” Cheng finished 15th, 15th and 13th in the last three races on Thursday, giving him an overall 13th place with no chance of competing in the medal race.