Asian Games 2023: Hong Kong’s Grace Lau wins karate bronze but coach questions seeding issue
- Lau admits she ‘didn’t see it coming’ when told there was no seeding in Hangzhou, which saw her drawn in same pool as Kiyou Shimizu
- Japanese star went on to win gold medal after beating Hongkonger in round-robin matches, as coach William Thomas vents frustration
Hong Kong head coach William Thomas questioned the draw surrounding the city’s top karate athletes at the Asian Games, despite Grace Lau Mo-sheung pocketing a women’s individual kata bronze medal on Thursday.
Reigning Asian champion Lau had to settle for bronze, the same colour she won in Jakarta in 2018, after being placed in the same pool alongside arch-rival Kiyou Shimizu of Japan, who beat Lovely Anne Robberth of Malaysia to defend her gold medal for the second time in a row.
Thomas said the seeding issue had been raised at a technical meeting in Hangzhou, but they were told by the Olympic Council of Asia that the “no seeding” rule was published in the technical rule book six months ago.
“The argument also says the Asian Games, or any other Games, don’t offer points into the World Karate Federation rankings, so, should the rankings be used to determine seedings at all?” Thomas said.
“I’d think perhaps they can use the [recent] Asian Championships as it should be a more direct correlation to the Hangzhou Games.”
The 29-year-old Lau outscored Shimizu at the regional championships to win gold in Malaysia in July, but she could not replicate that display at the Linping Sports Centre Gymnasium, losing by 0.9 and 0.5 points in two round-robin matches, respectively.