Asian Games 2023: rowing duo clinch Hong Kong’s first gold, pausing China’s dominance
- Lam San-tung and Wong Wai-chun win gold in men’s pairs after easing past Uzbekistan in the final
- China, who normally dominate Asian Games rowing events, have their undefeated streak interrupted
Rowers Lam San-tung and Wong Wai-chun got Hong Kong’s Asian Games off to a golden start on Sunday, winning the men’s pairs and snapping China’s undefeated run on the water.
The Hongkonger’s hauled in Uzbekistan’s Shehroz Hakimov and Dilshodjon Khudoyberdiev, having trailed by almost a second over the first half of the 2,000 metre race, and eventually won comfortably.
Lam and Wong took gold in six minutes, 44.20 seconds, with the Uzbekistan boat crossing the line in 6:48.11. India’s Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram were a distant third for bronze in 6:50.41.
It was the second time at a major event Lam and Wong had left their Uzbekistan opponents trailing in their wake, having beaten them to gold at last year’s Asian Championships, and Lam said there had been “absolutely no doubts” in his mind they would win.
“I’m feeling grateful for the result, because we have been working really hard for the past few years,” Lam said. “We’ve struggled a lot and then we had a lot of doubt, but finally we crossed the line, and we feel we finally did it.”
Wong said there were mixed emotions, with the “excited and very happy” part balanced with relief at having “just finally” won.
