Asian Games: Hong Kong squash team backs new generation in hunt for 5 medals
- With star players having retired since the last Games in Jakarta, younger replacements will play a fuller role next month in Hangzhou
- Newly crowned Asian women’s champion Simmi Chan among the city’s eight-strong squad for the Games
A new generation of squash players will have to step up when Hong Kong head to Hangzhou next month aiming to live up to past glories at the Asian Games.
An eight-member contingent, headed by Ho Tze-lok in the women’s and Alex Lau Tsz-kwan in the men’s, will strive for honours in the men’s and women’s individual and team events and the newly added mixed doubles.
At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Ho was only an up-and-coming player when the women’s team got their gold medal. Now the 27-year-old has to shoulder more responsibility alongside teammates Simmi Chan Sin-yuk, Tong Tsz-wing and Lee Ka-yi.
With Hong Kong squash taking home two gold and two silver from Jakarta, the pressure is on for this year’s squad to repeat past successes.
While the city’s head coach Peter Genever said the target was to win medals in all five events – although he preferred not to specify which colour – women’s coach Rebecca Chiu Wing-yin would go only as far as to quietly talk up the chance of a second successive medal in the team competition.
“A number of teams are very close,” said Chiu – the only Hong Kong player to have won the women’s individual gold at the Asian Games, in 2002. “Malaysia may be slightly better but Hong Kong, India and even Japan also have chances.
