Hong Kong’s teenage windsurfing world champion Mak Cheuk-wing returns to hero’s welcome – and getting some fried rice is top priority
The 13-year-old schoolgirl is already being hailed as the ‘heir to Lee Lai-shan’
Mak Cheuk-wing, Hong Kong’s new sporting hero, got a taste of the spotlight she’s now under after the 13-year-old junior world windsurfing champion landed back in the city on Monday night to a media scrum.
Already the teenager is being hailed in local media as “daughter of the wind”, the heir apparent to Lee Lai-shan, Hong Kong’s only Olympic gold medallist. This despite the fact she’s not even eligible for the HK team for another year.
Mak won the under-15s title in the Techno 293 class on Lake Garda at the weekend.
Before getting carried away with hopes of emulating San-san, who won windsurfing gold at the Atlanta 96 Olympics, the teenager was focused first on reaching the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires – and getting a plate of her favourite fried rice.
“I’ve read about her in books,” Mak told Hong Kong media of local hero Lee, who won gold seven years before Mak was born.
The student at St Stephen’s Girls’ College is also a member of their basketball team and only stepped on to a surf board for the first time four years ago.
