Hong Kong's top rider, Wong Kam-po, remained upbeat about winning his third consecutive road-race medal in Doha Asian Games despite a disappointing performance at the Asian championships in Kuala Lumpur.

Wong finished in the main peloton some 40 seconds behind the winner, Mehdi Sohrabi, in the 173-kilometre individual road race last Saturday. Youngster Cheung King-wai managed ninth position - the only top-10 finish among the six Hong Kong team members.

"The result in Malaysia was not unexpected as our target was to help the junior athletes," said Wong, who will be taking part in his fourth Asian Games in December. "Also we had been focusing on track events in our build-up to the Asian championships and didn't have much training in road racing before going to Malaysia."

Wong, who won a gold and a bronze medal in the road race at the previous two Asian Games respectively, said his focus in Doha would remain the same.

"The road race is always an important focus and the team will be travelling to Kunming for three weeks of altitude training. I think, because of my experience, I still have something to offer in the road race," said Wong.

In 1998 in Bangkok, Wong took the title, followed by a bronze at the Pusan Games in 2002. Although he has spent more time on the track recently, and despite a growing number of youngsters coming through the ranks, Wong is still a force to be reckoned with in road race at Asian level.

The veteran, however, still clinched two medals on the track in Kuala Lumpur - a bronze in the 15km scratch and a silver in the 53km madison with teammate Cheung King-wai.

"We took a total of eight medals at the Asian championships, the best-ever result for Hong Kong. Although they all came from track events, the achievement has certainly boosted our confidence," Wong said.

"But we still need to work really hard to get the right results at the Asian Games."

As well as the individual road race, Wong will take part in two track events in Doha - the points race and madison event where he will team up with Cheung again.

(South China Morning Post September 20, 2006)