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The following is issued on behalf of the 2009 East Asian Games (Hong Kong) Ltd:
There was no stopping the Chinese intrusion in the field of snooker dreams – both Tian Peng-fei and Yu Delu, who dashed Hong Kong singles hopes on December 3 – will meet today (December 5) for a clash of titans and a gold.
Both immaculately dressed in bow ties, they gave their semi-final opponents, Kim Do Hoon of Korea and Chinese Taipei's Wu Yu-Lun, an exhibition in superb potting yesterday (December 4).
The East Asian Games engine – into the third day of competition yesterday - was now cruising at normal speed. With almost 70 games spread across indoor and outdoor venues, the one sport that joined the early starters – basketball, volleyball, cue sport and football – was squash.
And it was also a day of mixed emotions and minor glitches – players feeling unwell and dropping out because of recurring ailment. But there was nothing that could be not be rearranged efficiently by games officials.
In the nine singles matches (five women's and four men's) played out at the Hong Kong Squash Centre yesterday, Hong Kong medal hopes were running high with two men and two women marching into the next stage with a 3-0 romp in each match.
Queen Elizabeth Stadium was the scene of table tennis action in 39 matches, starting with the morning mixed doubles preliminaries to the evening crunch quarter final matches. Here the usual occupants were the China and Hong Kong singles players.
The surprise guest was Korea.
Of the four basketball encounters – two women's preliminaries and Group B men's – there were a few surprises. Chinese Taipei came out on top of Japan 76-63, while the Korean men's (108-67) and the women's (102-51) dazed the Hong Kong side with convincing final scores.
The well-oiled Democratic People's Republic of Korea footballers – pulling up their socks after Wednesday's defeat by Japan – made the Macau team pick up the ball from the net eight times. The underdogs hardly went past the mid-field zone and went into the dressing room at half time 3-0 down.
The Hong Kong male spikers had an easy time in their preliminary showdown with the Guam team, coming out 3-0 victors.
Hong Kong's women had a tough time facing up to the stronger and taller opponents from Korea yesterday evening. The 3-0 result did not show how hard they tried as they succumbed 25-16, 25-17 and 25-17.
The final volleyball clash in the Group B women's preliminary saw old adversaries, China and Japan, cross swords, with the Chinese coming out on top in a convincing 3-0 win.
The International Trade and Exhibition Centre was again the scene of a variety of cue sport action. Hong Kong's Marco Fu Ka-chun managed to shake off his first day stumble and teamed up with Fung Kwok-wai to beat the Korean team 3-0. They now enter today's final to clash with the Chinese Taipei pair and hope to bring home a gold.
In the women's nine-ball pool singles clash in the semi-finals, Chihiro Kawahara scrapped through 7-5 to book her place in the final. Her gold medal opponent will be Kim Ga Young of Korea who sent her Chinese Taipei opposite packing with a 7-3 end-score.
Ends/Saturday, December 5, 2009
Issued at HKT 00:58
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