Hong Kong may yet add a bronze in men’s football to the 28 already amassed. Their historic run ended in a 4-0 defeat in the semi-finals on Wednesday night at the hands of Japan, and they will face Uzbekistan this weekend for the third time in two weeks with a medal at stake.

After a day when the city’s athletes made history, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said: “Driven by her unyielding spirit, Yang Qianyu remained calm during the competition and gained victory. We are exhilarated and thrilled. The Hong Kong, China delegation has been attaining remarkable achievements. We fully support Hong Kong athletes to continue to strive for excellent results.”

Competing in her last Games, and what could prove to be her final competitive event, Yang let her racing do the talking, breaking away from the chasing pack with little more than 13km to go, alongside South Korea’s Na Ah-reum, the defending champion.

Fourth in Jakarta, Yang was not about to let her opportunity slide this time, and completed a Hangzhou hat-trick, adding gold to the team pursuit bronze and Madison silver she had already won.

“I feel like I was in a dream still – I think my sporting career is now complete,” Yang said afterwards, adding she had “nothing left in the tank”.

The 30-year-old’s teammates may yet try to talk her out of retirement with the Paris Olympics coming up next year, but a tearful Yang revealed she had seriously ill parents who now needed her care and attention, even if it meant sacrificing her cycling career.

“I think coach Shen [Jinkang] will let me off the hook,” she said. “I really want to step down. I don’t have any more energy for more competitions.”

In 23-year-old Ceci Lee Sze-wing, they have a leader who is already making sacrifices for her team. Lee was the one expected to cross the finish line first, but she came home in eighth among a group of 20 riders she helped keep at bay in the mass sprint for home.

The head coach hailed the “determination and absolute will” of his riders to make the tactic of Yang breaking away early work.

“It’s not easy for Lee to hold back and cover Yang from behind,” Shen said. “She helped keep Yang’s lead intact by not bringing the other riders up. So this is some brilliant cooperation, great team spirit and some hugely successful tactics.”

That same mentality had propelled the city’s footballers to a semi-final against Japan, and no matter the result of Saturday’s bronze medal match against Uzbekistan, they have already made history.

No Hong Kong side had ever made it further than the last eight before, and the only time they reached the quarter-finals was 65 years ago in Tokyo.

Despite the result, which was a little of the team’s own making, head coach Jorn Andersen said his players had made great progress.

“I was really very happy with the first half, we were playing well, and I think this half was maybe our best half of the whole tournament,” Andersen said.

Trailing 1-0 at the break, Hong Kong were ultimately exposed by a technically superior Japanese side who will now face South Korea for gold, and Andersen acknowledged that the industry that saw his side past Palestine and Iran “today was not enough and the opponent was a little bit too strong”.

Andersen, though, can look towards the future with some relish. In the likes of Li Ngai-hoi and Ellison Tsang Yi-hang, he has two young defenders who should make the step up to the senior team sooner rather than later.

Whether that comes as early as next week, when Hong Kong begin their World Cup qualifying campaign against Bhutan, remains to be seen, but the pair, and goalkeeper Tse Ka-wing, are undoubted finds of an Asian Games that has unearthed stars across all sports for Hong Kong.