HK sailors eye Hangzhou Games after golden show
Proud Hong Kong windsurfing coach Chan King-yin heaped praise on his sailors, who overcame difficult Covid-19 restrictions to win four gold medals at the Asian Sailing Championships and stake their claim for honours at September’s Hangzhou Asian Games.
The Hong Kong squad left for Spain yesterday for a lengthy IQFOIL European Tour having bagged an impressive four golds, two silver and a bronze in Abu Dhabi over the weekend.
Chan said he hoped the excellent results would help cheer up Hong Kong people, who are burdened by a record surge in Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 cases.
“The team would like to bring this good news to Hong Kong. No matter what difficulties we are facing, we can overcome them and do our best,” Chan said. “I am so proud to be part of the windsurfing team. During the coronavirus pandemic, we tried to train hard, especially in IQFOIL class, because we don’t have much overseas competition to gain experience in this new format.
“Those young elite windsurfers showed us they have the potential to win at the Hangzhou Asian Games later this year.”
Some of Hong Kong’s top windsurfers are now training and competing with the new IQFOIL class of boards, which will be introduced at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The RS:X class had its last Olympic outing at the Tokyo Games while the Hangzhou Games will feature both types as sailors transition to the new boards.
Hong Kong sent seven windsurfers to Abu Dhabi to compete in the men’s and women’s RS:X and IQFOIL events.
Hong Kong’s performances in the Middle East were particularly significant, with all four gold medal winners having earned selection for the Asian Games over the past two months. They are: two-time Olympian Michael Cheng Chung-leung and Ngai Wai-yan for the RS:X class, and Cheng Ching-yin and Ma Kwanching for IQFOIL.
IQFOIL was making its debut at the Asian Sailing Championships, with Cheng and Ma dominating their events over 10 races.
Cheng, 22, finished ahead of the fleet with four wins, scoring net 15 penalty points to grab his first Asian Championships crown.
“It’s my first Asian title in the adult category, so it’s a positive one,” said Cheng, who started fulltime training in 2020. “But I’m not very happy with my performance, especially at the start of the race when I was a bit lax, but I was lucky to wake up in time.
“I was a bit disappointed that several countries, including China, Japan and South Korea, were absent because of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Although it was a weakened field, Hong Kong can feel encouraged with second and third places going to teammates Rafeek Kikabhoy and Au Ling-yeung, respectively, with their seven opponents left trailing far behind.
In the women’s IQFOIL, 24-year-old Ma overpowered five Singaporean opponents with nine firsts and one seventh to score net 9 penalty points and win the title.
Ma has been focusing on IQFOIL since early 2020 and said an Asian Games gold was her priority. “I am grateful for what I learned from the world-class windsurfers at the World Championships in Switzerland six months ago, which helped me a lot in my performance in Abu Dhabi,” she said.
Ma, a silver medallist at the 2018 Asian Games at mixed RS: One class, is looking forward to learning more in Europe, where the Hong Kong team will compete in at least five IQFOIL World Cup and European international events. First up for the squad is the International Games in Cadiz, Spain, starting today.