Chinese cyclists got off to a perfect Asian Games start on home soil on Saturday, as Hong Kong cyclist Lee Wai Sze notched the Asian record with 33.945 seconds in Track Cycling Women's 500M individual time trial and China's Jiang Fan rewrote the Asian mark in women's individual pursuit in Saturday's qualifying of the event.
The 23-year-old, who came off a successful 2010 season, broke the initial record of 34.000 seconds set by China's Jiang Yonghua back in 2002. She also beat Beijing Olympic bronze medalist Guo Shuang of China, who covered the distance with only 0.2 seconds behind.
Lee said that Guo is her idol and she always wants to beat Guo. Last time they competed was in April, when Lee took the silver behind Guo in Asian Cycling Championships in Sharjah. The thought to beat Guo was so strong for Lee that she even suffered from sleeplessness before the Guangzhou Asian Games started. Two days before, she even sent text message to his coach Shen Jinkang at midnight when she could not fall asleep, saying that she wanted so much to beat Guo.
"So last night, my teammate Wong Kam-po had a chat with me. He told me that I shouldn't be so nervous and I should adjust my mental state because I was good enough in my daily training sessions."
"Now I am so happy because my dream has come true. I've been longing for this medal," said Lee.
Although Guo Shuang failed to defend her Asian Games title, she was still content with her performance.
"I just performed as normal," she said, "Though I only took the silver, the result is much better than what I achieved in Doha Asian Games."
In women's individual pursuit qualifying on the day, Chinese Jiang Fan rewrote the Asian record she set in this year's UCI Track Cycling World Championships. She finished in 3:37.497, 1.022 second faster than the previous record she set just seven months ago.
"It is no big deal. It is only qualifying. I hope I will have good results in the final tomorrow," said 21-year-old Jiang.
In the Men's Team Sprint Qualifying, China, Japan, Iran and Malaysia went through to the final. China and Japan will battle for the gold medal on Sunday.
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