Cycling’s Track Nations Cup: lucky escape from horror crash for Boey Leung in Canada, but Ceci Lee shines against ‘fierce’ rivals
- Leung has sore head and shows a crack inside her helmet, but says no serious injuries after incident during Madison
- Olympic hopeful Lee posts a personal best in the women’s elimination race
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Hong Kong cyclist Boey Leung Bo-yee was fortunate to escape serious injury in a dramatic crash at the Track Nations Cup in Canada, but there was a promising start for Ceci Lee Sze-wing as she aims for the Olympics.
The crash, after 20 laps of the Madison race at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Ontario, came when a handover mix-up by the Belgian team brought down 29-year-old Leung, who suffered a blow to the head.
After being examined by Hong Kong medical staff, Leung was able to continue but she and her partner, younger sister Chloe Leung Wing-yee, were eliminated moments later by virtue of having been lapped twice.
It was a disappointing end to their first Madison of the year, having booked a place in the final in the last sprint lap in the qualifying race earlier on Saturday, local time.
Leung revealed that she had a painful head and elbow, and showed a crack inside her helmet, but said she had sustained no “obvious and serious” injuries.
Earlier, Olympic hopeful Lee performed strongly in the women’s elimination race to record a personal best result by finishing fifth among the 23 riders.
Although she had experienced the event as part of the multi-discipline omnium, it was the first time that triple Asian Games medallist Lee had competed in a stand-alone elimination race. She said her opponents were more “fierce” than those she had encountered previously.
In the women’s sprint, Ng Sze-wing and Yeung Cho-yiu ranked 29 and 31 among 32 riders in the qualifying and failed to progress.
The team sprint saw Yeung, Ng and Ching Yin-shan combine to clock a time of 50.344 seconds that placed them eighth in qualifying, sending them through to the next round. Despite being outpaced by top seeds Netherlands in the next round, it was the first time Hong Kong had got that far in the event.
In the men’s team sprint, To Cheuk-hei, Yung Tsun-ho and Mok Tsz-chun finished in 45.168 seconds in qualifying. That left them in 12th placed and unable to progress.
Yung and To also failed to reach the second round in the men’s keirin, while Asian Championships bronze medallist Tso Kai-kwong was eliminated from the men’s omnium at the qualifying stage.
Lee was poised to compete in the omnium, the event she had targeted, later on Sunday, local time. Chu Tsun-wai was set to compete alongside his partner Tso in the men’s Madison.
