Asian Games 2023: Hong Kong karate pair Chris Cheng and Grace Lau to get shot a bronze in Hangzhou
Hong Kong karate pair Chris Cheng Tsz-man and Grace Lau Mo-sheung reached the bronze medal match in their respective men’s and women’s individual kata events on Thursday.
Reigning Asian champion Lau was placed in Pool 2 alongside arch-rival Kiyou Shimizu of Japan and had two chances – both in the round-robin stage – to try replicating her stunning feat in outscoring the Olympic silver medallist for a berth in the gold medal match.
Despite a decent score of 41.7 points with her “Suparinpei” routine, the Hongkonger lost by 0.9 points, with world No 3 Shimizu, who trailed Lau by almost 2,200 points in the rankings, also performing the same routine.
Two-time defending gold medallist Shimizu – who was the first to perform in the second round – landed the highest score of the day with a stunning 43.3 points with her “Chatanyara Kushanku” routine.
The 29-year-old Lau missed out on the gold medal match by just 0.5 points, as she scored 42.8 points with her “Papuren”, the same routine she used to defeat Shimizu at the regional championships in July.
Lau will face Nguyen Thi Phuong of Vietnam for a bronze medal.
In the men’s event, Cheng – who is taking part in his fourth Games – ranked third behind Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chao-ching and Macau’s Kuok Kin-hang in the first round with a score of 40.4 points to reach the second round.
The 35-year-old pocketed 40.5 points with his “Papuren” routine in the next round to go one spot higher in the rankings, but it wasn’t enough to knock out Kuok, who netted a solid score of 41.5 points with his “Chatanyara Kushanku” routine.
Cheng will compete in the bronze medal match – his first since the 2014 Incheon Games – against Park Hee-jun of South Korea, bronze medallist in Jakarta in 2018, for a spot on the podium in his last Games.
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