Olympic hopeful Grace Lau Mo-sheung gave her mum the best Mother’s Day gift she could ask for after capturing her third East Asian Karate Championships women’s individual kata gold medal at Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai on Saturday.
On the eve of Mother’s Day, Lau, the world number four, scored 25.52 points to beat Lin Xiaoyin, of China, in the final of the competition with her mother watching from the stands and cheering her on.
The mainlander scored 23.14 points.
“My mother always supports me and watches my performances, just like she’s one of my fans,” said Lau, who leaves on Sunday for the Series A competition in Turkey, one of the ranking tournaments towards 2020 Olympic qualification. “It’s a pity that I can’t celebrate Mother’s Day with her, but if you love her, every single day can be a Mother’s Day.”
Lau’s mother waited outside the venue to take photos with her daughter, who buys little gifts for her mum. “My brother will also compete in the team kata on Sunday and hopefully he can send another gift to mum as well,” she said.
The 2018 Asian Games bronze medallist is third in the Olympic qualification and with the top four making it to the Games, Lau has a golden opportunity to represent Hong Kong at the Tokyo Games next year.
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“I won’t think too much about Tokyo at this stage to avoid giving myself too much pressure as there is still a long way to go before the Summer Games, but it looks promising,” she said.
Lau used a new routine, Chatanyara Kushanku, in the final and was happy with the outcome.
“I only learned this routine in March in Osaka and it is relatively new,” she said.
“It’s the second time I performed it in a competition environment after the Morocco Premier League last month and although the movement was not as good as practice, I think it’s fine with more opportunities in future.”
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Lau said she needed new routines approaching the 2020 Games in order to leave a better impression with the judges.
“We need at least four routines for a competition of 64 performers and can’t rely on the old one too much as we need to give the judges new experience,” she said. “We always need to bring in new elements to keep competitive.”
In the men’s individual kata, Chris Cheng Tsz-man beat Park Heejun of South Korea for gold. The home athlete scored 24.82 points in the final while Park scored 24.52.
“I lost to him [Park] in the Asian Games last summer in the repechage for the bronze medal match,” said Cheng. “He is a powerful exponent and there are a lot of things I can learn from him despite beating him this time.”
Cheng is ranked just outside the top ten in the Olympic qualifiers. “If I can’t make it to the top four in the end, I will need to take part in a qualifying tournament where the best three finishers can also book their Tokyo Games ticket. The East Asian Championships are not part of the Olympic qualifiers but a good result can boost my confidence,” said Cheng.
