Our Notre Dame: Hong Kong cycling hero Sarah Lee joins volunteers clean up wet Tseung Kwan O Velodrome
- Torrential rain caused flooding in the venue after the rooftop opened because of a false fire alarm
- The 31-year-old double world champion calls the venue the ‘Notre Dame’ of Hong Kong cycling
Hong Kong cycling heroine, Sarah Lee Wai-sze, is used to whizzing around Hong Kong Velodrome at breakneck speed. But on Friday, she was reduced to an agonising crawl after she joined volunteers mopping up after torrential rain caused flooding inside the venue.
Rainwater had seeped into the venue and flooded the velodrome and the adjacent badminton courts after the city was dumped by heavy rain during Friday’s “yellow” rainstorm.
But apparently, the flooding was mainly caused by a faulty fire alarm system that caused the rooftop to open – to increase air circulation – allowing rainwater to dump its load on to the HK$1.13 billion Tseung Kwan O venue.
Double world track champion Lee was supposed to train on Friday morning but was aghast to see the venue in unusable condition. She said she had to “protect our Notre Dame” referring to the iconic cathedral that caught fire in Paris this week.
The 31-year-old Hong Kong ace took to Facebook to write about her experience, thinking at first the roof had been leaking before finding out that it was actually caused by a fire alarm. However, there were reports of five or six small leaks inside the venue before the roof was accidentally opened.
