Valente wins women's omnium as Lee finishes 20th

Jennifer Valente of the United States on Sunday retained her Olympic title in the women’s omnium at the Paris Games while the SAR's Ceci Lee finished 20th. That concluded Hong Kong, China's participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Valente ended with 144 points in the multi-race event, consisting of the scratch, tempo, elimination and points races. Poland’s Daria Pikulik took silver while Ally Wollaston of New Zealand rounded up the podium. In the first scratch race, cyclists were ranked and awarded points by the order they finished the 30-lap event. Valente was off to a strong start and finished first, earning the maximum 40 points, with Canada’s Maggie Coles-Lyster and Georgia Baker of Australia coming from behind to grab second and third respectively. Lee, making her Olympic debut, came 19th among the 22 riders to earn four points. The SAR cyclist moved up to 18th overall after the second tempo race, where the top contestant per lap was awarded a point from the fifth lap forward while 20 points were given for lapping an opponent. Ireland’s Lara Gillespie came out on top in this race but Valente maintained her overall lead. The 23-year-old SAR athlete earned 16 points by finishing 13th, giving her 20 points at the end of the first half. In the elimination round, the last cyclist of every other lap was knocked out of the race. Valente won this round as well to continue to top the leaderboard. Lee, meanwhile, was the fifth athlete eliminated and ended up with six points. In the final points race, points were awarded to the top four athletes for every 10 laps in the gruelling 80-lap race. The SAR cyclist finished near the bottom of the pack in the race that was won by Poland’s Pikulik. Afterwards, a tearful Lee described her performance as "very poor", saying she felt she let many people down, including her coaches, teammates and the former top SAR cyclist Sarah Lee. "Just like in the past, I did very poorly in the scratch race, and I couldn't change that today," she told reporters. "Even though Sarah Lee very diligently tried to pass on her experience to me before the race, I still did very poorly. Coaches and teammates spent a lot of time training with me for the omnium, but I still raced very poorly." She had said she hoped to finish in the top 10 overall. Ceci Lee, who won silver at the Asian Games last year, added that her Paris experience allowed her to get a taste of just how good the world's finest cyclists are. She also said she hopes to work hard in future to improve her fitness and use of tactics. The SAR's cycling team head coach, Herve Dagorne, said while he could understand her frustrations, he felt she could have been more aggressive. "This is the ominum, and the last event is the points race. You need to score points, so if you don't try, you don't get it, it will not come from the sky," he said. "I can understand it's disappointing... I wish she could have attacked more in the points race, like the Japanese did and the French did. They gained a lap, [scoring] 20 points." The Hong Kong, China delegation earned a total of four medals in Paris: golds for fencers Vivian Kong and Edgar Cheung, and two bronzes from swimming star Siobhan Haughey. Ceci Lee and taekwondo athlete Lo Wai-fung will be the flagbearers for the SAR at the closing ceremony. _____________________________Last updated: 2024-08-11 HKT 21:59