Tokyo Olympics: Sarah Lee’s Olympic medal chances to become clearer after elite quarter-final test
- Are the London 2012 medallist’s early struggles a sign that she is off the pace of her rivals?
- Lee needed two attempts to progress to the quarter-finals
Lee Wai-sze, and her teammate Jessica Lee Hoi-yan, were relegated to the repechage after each finished outside the top two automatic qualifying positions in their opening round heats.
Lee Wai-sze was more than eight-hundredths of a second off qualifying first time. Not a sizeable distance, but she would have much preferred a straightforward heat win (or runners-up spot) and avoided the losers’ race altogether.
The veteran London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist eventually advanced to the quarter-finals of the event that yielded that medal after narrowly beating Australia’s Kaarle McCulloch by 0.136 seconds and third-placed Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania by 0.554.
That she was forced to come from the back of the pack to do it, will not be recorded. But whether that proves she was off the pace and forced to dig deep to avoid a shock early exit, or if it means she timed her run beautifully – the by-product of a wealth experience at this elite level – only she will know.