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Hong Kong rider takes Asian Games road race

By Agence France Presse
Published: Dec. 3, 2006
The winner gives a thumb's-up as he crosses the line
The winner gives a thumb's-up as he crosses the line
Photo: AFP

Wong Kam Po of Hong Kong won the Asian Games’ men's cycling road race on Sunday, giving the territory its first gold medal of the games and the second of his career.

Wong outlasted Iran's Mehdi Sohrabi, the Asian road race champion, and South Korea's Park Sung-baek for the win in a time of 3:45:02 on a course shortened from 199.7km to 156.4km due to high winds.

The 33-year-old, whose previous gold-medal ride came in Bangkok in 1998, followed by a silver in 2002 in Busan, said that he had enjoyed the testing conditions.

"We knew beforehand that the race would be shortened from four to three laps," said Wong. "But the reduction was not a problem. The wind caused difficulties when one of our team fell off, which meant we couldn't cooperate very well. So we should have done better.

"The distance between us was quite far but we managed to achieve our result over the last 25m."

Watched by Belgian great Eddy Merckx, Wong exploded into his stride in the last 200 meters to inch ahead of his two closest rivals. The three had broken clear with 18km left from a group that had led from the 15km mark and finished just two seconds ahead of the main group.

Japan's Fumiyuki Beppu, the only ProTour rider in the field, finished ninth.

Competition manager Graham Sycamore said the race was shortened because of safety fears.

"The high winds would have had the cyclists finishing in the dark, so we reduced the race from four laps to three for the safety of the riders," said Sycamore.

2006 Asian Games
Doha, Qatar
Men's road race
Top 10
1. Wong Kam Po (HKG), 156.4km in 3:45.02
2. Mehdi Sohrabi (IRI), 3.45.02
3. Park Sung-baek (KOR), 3.45.02
4. Orshikh Jamsran (MGL), 3:45.05
5. Ilya Chernyshow (KAZ), 3:45.05
6. Makoto Iljima (JPN), 3:45.05
7. Hossein Askari (IRI), 3:45.05
8. Andrey Medyannikov (KAZ), 3:45.05
9. Fumiyuki Beppu (JPN), 3:47.57
10. Li Fuyu (CHN), 3:55.17